


Scapegoats Not Needed (aka AoU)

by Kizmet



Series: What If [8]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie), Child!Wanda, Civil War Team Iron Man, Different Avengers Team, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-09
Updated: 2018-08-29
Packaged: 2019-06-24 03:48:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 27,695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15621876
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kizmet/pseuds/Kizmet
Summary: Age of Ultron without the blame-game.





	1. Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance

**Author's Note:**

> If the MCU is going to insist upon calling Wanda a child whenever the subject of her culpability comes up I’m going to make her and Pietro actual children. Instead of being in their early to mid-twenties, Pietro and Wanda are 14/15 here, part of Peter and Shuri’s peer group. Which makes them around 12 when HYDRA recruited them, young enough to excuse their utterly stupid thought process and that is compounded by List recruiting them within a year or two of their parents’ death (a stray SI missile after Tony became Iron Man will be addressed).

The air around the old European Castle shimmered occasionally in the sunlight, revealing the honeycomb patterned dome-shield protecting it. In the forest below a small, vaguely human-shaped distortion stood in front of the nearly invisible shield. Nearby, a curly haired man and an Asian woman in S.H.I.E.L.D.-style combat uniforms waited.

“Now I think my Sour Patch is the greatest,” the human-shaped distortion said. “But you have to admit he lacks style.”

“He _did_ let you paint your ‘stealth’ armor hot-rod red and gold beneath the cloaking tech,” Dr. Bruce Banner replied dryly.

“Only after days of arguing.”

“Too much chatter,” the woman said with a stern frown.

“Yes sir, Ms. Cavalry, Sir,” Tony snarked. “Let Rhodey know I’m ready to drop their shield whenever he’s ready.”

“Colonel, we’re ready,” the woman relaid through gritted teeth.

“He’s not going to change, May,” Dr. Banner said mildly. “You might as well get used to it… Before you crack a crown.”

“Ten minutes, on my mark,” Rhodes’ voice replied over the comm.

Several miles away from the castle a squadron of jeeps and all-terrain vehicles dropped their camouflage, abandoned all attempts at stealth and charged. Captain America raced out ahead of the main body of the force on a motorcycle. Thor and War Machine took to the air a moment later.

Inside the castle alarms blared. “Report to your stations immediately,” a PA system ordered. “This is not a drill. We are under attack. We are under attack.” As the base exploded into chaos around them a pair of teenagers drew together, sharing a brief handclasp to solidify their nerves.

“Who gave the order to attack?” Strucker demanded.

“Herr Strucker, it's the Avengers,” one of the soldiers reported. “They are already inside our perimeter. The guards are attempting to turn the guns.”

Strucker turned to the scientist at his side. “They have to be after the scepter. Can we hold them?” he asked his soldier.

“They are the Avengers!” the soldier replied, already defeated in spirit.

Stucker grimaced, “Deploy the rest of the tanks.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Concentrate fire on the weak ones,” Strucker continued. “A hit can make them close ranks.” He shook his head. “After everything we've accomplished. They come now? When we're on the verge of our greatest breakthrough.”

“Then let's show them what we've accomplished,” Dr. List suggested. “Send out the twins.”

“It's too soon,” Strucker argued.

“It's what they signed up for,” List replied. “I doubt their loyalty to HYDRA will hold if we deny them a shot at Stark.”

Outside Rhodes, Thor and Steve easily cleared a path through HYRDA’s forces. In the first of the former S.H.I.E.L.D. jeeps Clint stood up and started using his arrows to help pick off the opposition. A moment before they reached the castle’s shield, it fell and the Avengers continued on toward the castle without missing a beat.

“Okay Tony, you and May can join the party,” Rhodes said. “Dr. Banner, your choice if you want to head back to the plane.”

“Yeah, I think I’ll do that,” Bruce said. “I always prefer a mission without a Code Green.”

“You ought to let the big guy blow off some steam,” Tony told Bruce as he deactivated his suit’s stealth capabilities. “Care for a ride Ms. May?”

May stepped up onto Iron Man’s boot and wrapped an arm around his waist. “Head straight for the castle Dr. Stark. Let’s see if we can catch them with their pants down this time,” she said without inflection.

Thor ripped the main gun off a tank while Cap leapt on top of another. He forced the hatch open then flung his shield inside. It ricocheted around taking out all the troops manning the tank in a few seconds, Steve leaned in, snatched it out of the air then leapt off the tank as it veer to the left forcing several HYDRA foot soldiers to scatter or be crushed beneath it’s treads.

“Weak,” Clint remarked, his grin challenging both Steve and Thor. He fired two exploding arrows in quick succession, sending them down the barrels of neighboring tanks.

Thor laughed, “Captain?” he suggested hefting his hammer significantly.

“Watch out for our guys!” Rhodes shouted. He swooped down and grabbed Steve by his harness and flew him into the center of the HYDRA formation. Thor twirled his hammer and took off after them. While Rhodes flew back to provide support for the bulk of his forces Thor and Steve fought back to back for a few minutes, drawing the HYDRA forces in. Then they stepped apart. Steve braced himself and Thor brought his hammer down on the shield, the resultant shockwave sent HYDRA’s forces flying in all directions.

“We will not yield,” Strucker told his men. “The Americans sent their circus freaks to test us. We will send them back in bags. No surrender!”

“No surrender!” the HYDRA soldiers shouted back.

“I am going to surrender,” Strucker told List quietly as he watched them charge into the fray. “You will delete everything. If we give the Avengers the weapons, they may not look too far into what we've been doing here.” He grimaced, “Hopefully the twins will have their fun and manage to avoid capture.”

“The ‘twins’?” May asked. Stucker looked up to see her holding a knife to List’s throat as she took the gun from his belt. “I’ll have to get you to tell me all about them.” She tilted her head toward her mic. “Stark?”

“I asked them to surrender,” Tony said. “But I guess they listen to their boss.”

“No you didn’t,” a weak voice was heard behind him. Tony tossed a stun grenade into the pile of downed HYDRA agents then headed into List’s laboratory.

“I’m getting the files now,” Tony said as he stepped out of the suit. “Sentry mode. Okay, J.A.R.V.I.S. You know I want it all. Make sure you copy Hill at HQ.”

Outside something blurred in front of the jeep Clint was shooting from, a moment later the ground exploded tossing the jeep into the air. The blur resolved into a slim boy with dyed-white hair as he stopped to watch the carnage he’d just caused. “You didn't see that coming?” he asked Hawkeye’s crumpled form.

“Fuck,” Rhodes swore, “We’ve got an Enhanced in the field, a speedster. And casualties. Thor, Cap support our guys. Banner, we might need you afterall.”

“On it,” Steve replied crisply. He nodded to Thor and the demigod launched him into the air, back in the direction from which they’d come.

“May? Tones? You good on your own?” Rhodes asked.

“I have Strucker and List,” May reported as she handcuffed the pair. “Be warned, there are two Enhanced, twins.”

In the lab, “I know you're hiding more than files,” Tony murmured to himself.

“Colonel Rhodes is asking for a status report,” J.A.R.V.I.S. suggested.

“I’m a little busy Platypus,” Tony said. “HYDRA’s trying to be sneaky here.”

“As long as you’re not under fire,” Rhodes sighed.

“Everyone here is taking a little nappy-nap,” Tony said with a smirk as he glance toward the door and the pile of downed HYDRA soldiers just visible through it. “Hey, J, give me an IR scan of the room real quick.”

“The wall to your left...I'm reading steel reinforcement and an air current,” J.A.R.V.I.S. reported.

“Please be a secret door, please be a secret door,” Tony said to himself cheerfully as he ran his fingers over the wall. “Please be a secret door…” He pushed and the wall swung opened. “Yay!”

Outside of the castle Thor and Steve were playing a frustrating game of tag with the speedster. “He is as quick as Mercury,” Thor remarked as he tried for the speedster and missed. “As small as well.”

“Maybe a woman?” Steve suggested as he scanned the clearing, trying to guess where the blur of a speedster would attack from next. While the two of them kept the Enhanced occupied several of the former S.H.I.E.L.D. agents collected the injured and transported them back toward their heavier vehicles. Rhodes flew up, over the battlefield to check if there were HYDRA forces targeting them aside from the one Enhanced. He took out a gun-tower before the watchmen had finished turning the placements to fire towards the castle.

“Baron Strucker,” May said eying her prisoners coolly. “Hydra's number one thug.”

Strucker smirked, “Technically, I'm a thug for S.H.I.E.L.D.”

May struck him sharply, her expression tight and angry, “Where's Loki's scepter?” she demanded.

“Temper, temper,” Strucker said rubbing his cheek with his bound hands. “I thought hero-types frowned on striking a prisoner? Mayhap that is why it took you so long to notice us?”

A dark haired girl crept up behind May as she turned her ire on List. “Do you want to antagonize me too?” May snapped. Then a wave of telekinetic power knocked May off her feet. The girl was past her and gone before May could spot her. “Stark, the second Enhanced is in the castle!” May warned. “I have Strucker and List. Fall back to my position.”

“Yeah, I got...something bigger,” Tony replied distractedly as he as he stared up at a gigantic Chitauri leviathan hung from the ceiling of List’s secret lab. Then he spotted the scepter. ”Thor, I got eyes on the prize.”

The Enhanced girl crept up behind Tony and, stretching up her fingertips glowing red with her power, she reached for his face. Tony’s eyes glowed a matching red in response as her power took hold.

Behind him, the leviathan came to life. Tony spun around and found himself on a barren moon. The bodies of his S.U.D.D.S. team and the Avengers lay in a pile beside him. Phil Coulson’s rotting corpse sat calmly a rock beside the bodies, “You could have saved them,” he said. “Why didn't you do more?”

Overhead hundreds of Chitauri streamed by. Tony turned and saw the Earth on the other side of the portal, small and undefended in their path. He gasped and then he was back in List’s lab. “What the fuck am I in therapy for?” Tony muttered angrily to himself.

Behind him the two young Enhanced watched. The girl stopped her brother as he moved towards Tony. “We're just gonna let them take it?” the boy asked. The girl smiled to herself, an expression of dark pleasure, as Tony took the scepter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because Rhodes’ team gets closer to the castle before being discovered Novi Grad doesn’t come under fire in the opening battle and Tony doesn’t call in the Iron Legion (even though it’s better storytelling technique to show them before they become critical to the story when Ultron takes one over).
> 
> For those not familiar with AoS, Agent Melinda May is a female, kick-ass fighter-spy with a cold professional demeanor, aka the same basic character type as Natasha, only with less of a neon ‘honeypot’ sign over her head. I was originally leaning toward Kara Palamas since she’s unlikely to end up brainwashed by HYDRA without the data dump but Actually-a-Child!Wanda ties into May’s backstory too nicely.


	2. Not What, Who

Tony glanced from the scepter to Thor, “It feels good, yeah? I mean, you've been after this thing since S.H.I.E.L.D. collapsed. Not that I haven't enjoyed our little raiding parties, but…”

Thor nodded, “Verily. Now that I am aware of what the scepter is, it is a load off my mind to know it will soon be safely in Asgard’s hands.”

“So what is it?” Bruce asked. “You’ve said it’s the same as the Tesseract but that doesn’t really tell us Earthlings all that much.”

“A relic predating the universe itself,” Thor said. “I have been told that before creation itself, there were six singularities. Then the universe exploded into existence and the remnants of these systems were forged into concentrated ingots... Infinity Stones. Tesseract is one, the Aether that possessed my Lady Jane was another... And the Scepter is a third."

“Something from before the Big Bang?” Tony asked. “Now that I have got to get a look at.”

“We should figure out what Strucker was doing with it,” Steve commented. “HYDRA hasn’t been in the business of human enhancement since the Red Skull.”

“For decades S.H.I.E.L.D. was an impediment, keeping Enhancement from becoming the next arms race,” May said. “Now that’s gone. Add a highly visible team of ‘superheroes’ on our side and it was only a matter of time until the other side tried to level the playing field.”

“S.H.I.E.L.D. wanted a monopoly on the Enhanced arms race,” Tony said.

Steve nodded, in agreement with Tony for once, “And don’t forget, S.H.I.E.L.D. was HYDRA.”

May’s lips thinned.

“I don’t want to find out what Strucker was up to with that thing the hard way,” Rhodes said.

“I’ll have S.U.D.D.S. give it the once before it goes back to Asgard,” Tony promised then turned towards Thor. “Is that cool with you?”

Thor nodded unenthusiastically.

“I mean, just a few days until the farewell party,” Tony continued. “You're staying right?”

Helen Cho’s team met the Quinjet at the landing pad and quickly took charge of Clint and the other seriously injured agents.

Maria Hill walked up to Rhodes as the team locked down the Quinjet, “Colonel, Dr. Ross has already started looking into the data gathered from List’s lab while NATO has assumed custody of both List and Strucker.”

“Do we have anything on the two Enhanced yet?” Rhodes asked.

Hill glanced at her data pad, “Wanda and Pietro Maximoff. Twins. Orphaned at ten when a shell collapsed their apartment building… That was four years ago. Just when I think HYDRA can’t sink any lower, it turns out they’re recruiting from grade schools.”

May and Steve drifted over to listen in.

“Their abilities?” Rhodes asked.

“He's got increased metabolism and improved thermal homeostasis. Her thing is neural electric interfacing, telekinesis, mental manipulation,” Hill reported.

Rhodes scowled and May’s face went pale at the last while Steve just looked confused.

“He's fast and she's weird,” Hill rephrased for Steve’s benefit.

“We need some plan to deal with them, especially the girl,” May said forcefully. “If we don’t have something prepared… Someone’s going to have to shoot her.”

Steve stared at the pictures of the twins from Strucker’s files, “She’s just a kid,” he protested.

“I’m not saying I want to,” May snapped.

Rhodes put a calming hand on her shoulder, “It’s exactly the scenario you’re trying to avoid, we get that Melinda. Look, we’ll talk to Tony and the rest of the science team… And if they can’t whip something up, maybe Thor can borrow something from Asgard to deal with them.”

In the lab, Betty Ross got up from her computer and went to meet Bruce and Tony as they walked into the room. “How is everyone?” she asked. “I heard you called for Helen to set up the portable cradle?”

“Barton, Joseph and Gomez got caught hit by an Enhanced planted IED,” Tony replied. “But with Helen’s tech they’ll all be right as rain in a day or so.”

He put the scepter into a sensory rig, “Alright. Look alive, J.A.R.V.I.S. It's play time. We've only got a couple days with this joystick so let's make the most of it. Update me on the structural and compositional analysis.”

“The scepter is alien,” J.A.R.V.I.S. reported. “There are elements I can't quantify.”

“So there are elements you can,” Tony suggested.

“The jewel appears to be a protective housing for something inside. Something powerful.”

“Like a reactor?” Tony asked.

“Like a computer,” JARVIS corrected. “I believe I'm ciphering code.”

In Dr. Cho’s corner of the Steve hovered while the doctor’s machine rewrote Clint’s flesh, filling in the hole where a chunk of jeep had punctured his side. “You’re sure he's going to be okay?”

“There's no possibility of deterioration,” Dr. Cho replied a touch defensively. “The nano-molecular functionality is instantaneous. His cells don't know they're bonding with simulacrum.”

“She's creating tissue,” Bruce explained.

“If you brought him to my lab, the regeneration Cradle could do this in twenty minutes,” Helen said.

“Are you hinting that my lab is substandard?” Tony asked pasting on a wounded expression. Helen shook her head at him and rolled her eyes.

Tony grinned at Clint as he handed him a drink, “Oh, he's flatlining. Call it. Time?”

“No, no, no. I'm going to live forever,” Clint insisted. He glanced at the rapidly closing wound. “I'm gonna be made of plastic.”

“You'll be made of you, Mr. Barton,” Dr. Cho corrected. “Your own girlfriend won't be able to tell the difference.”

“Well, I don't have a girlfriend,” Clint said.

“That I can't fix,” Dr. Cho informed him. “You’re not my type. This is the next thing, Tony. Your clunky metal suits are going to be left in the dust.”

“Well, that is exactly the plan,” Tony replied. “And Helen, I expect to see you at the party on Saturday.”

“Unlike you, I don't have a lot of time for parties,” Helen replied.

“It’s a tomorrow’s Friday, you’re not going to run straight home and abandon your patients… Why don’t you bring your kid over?” Tony told her. “I’ll fly Harley out from Tennessee, they’ll hang out, break into the Pentagon’s computers or something…” He noticed Helen’s expression and quickly corrected himself. “Actually, J.A.R.V.I.S. can keep an eye on them. Make sure they don’t get into the alcohol or the explosives.”

“I’ve seen how well he does at keeping you out of trouble,” Helen wavered.

“I’ve had decades to perfect my trouble-making,” Tony replied, deadpan. “A couple of tweens will be a piece of cake for J.A.R.V.I.S.”

“Okay,” Helen said. “You’ve talked me into it.”

Tony grinned and left her to her work while he headed back to the scepter and lost himself in J.A.R.V.I.S.’ scans of the gem.

* * *

 

“What's the rumpus?” Bruce asked when Tony summoned all of S.U.D.D.S. to his lab in the middle of the night. He’d even gotten Jane, Darcy and Erik on video conference from Arecibo.

“Well, the scepter,” Tony said. “You see, we were wondering how Strucker got so inventive. So, I've been analyzing the gem inside.” He brought up a 3D image of JARVIS’s consciousness. “You may recognize this?”

“J.A.R.V.I.S.,” Betty said nodding to the image.

“Doctor,” the program replied.

“Started out, J.A.R.V.I.S. was just a natural language UI,” Tony reminded them. “But over the years he’s grown in complexity and now he runs the Iron Legion. He runs more of the business than anyone besides Pepper. Top of the line.”

“Yes,” Bruce agreed.

“I suspect not for long,” J.A.R.V.I.S. said.

“Meet the competition.” Tony brought up another 3D of the consciousness inside the scepter.

“It's beautiful,” Betty said.

“If you had to guess, what's it look like it's doing?” Tony prompted.

“Like it's thinking,” Betty said. “I mean this could be a...it's not a human mind, it…”

“They're like neurons firing,” Bruce agreed as he leaned over Betty’s shoulder to get a better look.

“The scepter’s not a what, it’s a who,” Tony declared.

“I don’t trust that thing,” Erik said.

“I just wanna talk to it,” Tony insisted. “Thor called it a relic but it thinks. Maybe we should hear it’s side of the story.”

“Tony, all I did was touch the Aether,” Jane warned. “Being possessed by it? It was horrible, it nearly killed me.”

“Well maybe if your boyfriend’s granddad hadn’t buried it in a hole for five thousand years it might have been in a better mood!” Tony snapped.

“I gotta say, I’m with Tony on this one,” Betty said. “We can’t lock something up simply because we’re too scared to try to understand it.”

Bruce stepped away from Betty and started fiddling with his glasses. “Was that aimed at me? I’m feeling a little put on the spot.”

Helen walked closer to the hologram of the consciousness from inside the gem, “I can’t ignore that this does look like a living being. As a doctor, I can’t countenance locking it in a vault without even trying to determine if it’s sentient.”

“Sorry Janey, Erik,” Darcy said. “I know you guys have had bad experiences but… Human Rights, or whatever you call it when you’re talking about E.T.”

“We’re not talking about ‘E.T.’,” Jane said. “More like ‘Alien’.”

“Bruce, where do you weigh in?” Erik asked.

Bruce took a moment, looking from the hologram of J.A.R.V.I.S. to the gem and back. “Tony, are you thinking about restarting Ultron?” he asked. “Because I thought we all agreed that supporting J.A.R.V.I.S. and his new batch of younger siblings with human intelligence, not artificial intelligence was the way to go.”

“I just want to give this intelligence the chance to talk to us,” Tony protested. Then he shrugged, “But if I learned something to take the triplets to the next level? Think about who wouldn’t get pulled to the front line if Ultron could be that front line: Rhodey and Pepper both have customized armor. Happy and Harley are authorized to use my armor under circumstances. Darcy, you wanna tell me where you and your taser are going to be if there’s trouble?”

“You know where,” Darcy said with a smirk.

Tony nodded, “And Erik? Even after what happened with Loki, where were you during the Convergence?”

“I dragged poor Ian out to Greenwich to help me set up gravimetric spikes to stabilize the focal point,” Erik admitted.

“Bruce, what if you were sipping margaritas on a sun-drenched beach turning brown instead of green? Not looking over your shoulder for VERONICA?” Tony asked and Betty rolled her eyes at the name. “What if you weren’t sitting in the quinjet dreading the thought that today might be a day when Rhodey calls a code green?”

“Don't hate, I helped design VERONICA,” Bruce said.

“As a worst-case measure, right?” Tony said. “To keep anyone from even thinking about dragging Betty out into the field to talk the Other Guy down. How about a best-case? What if the world was safe? What if next time aliens roll up to the club, and they will, they couldn't get past the bouncer?”

“The only people threatening the planet would be people?” Bruce said sarcastically. “The Avengers could all retire if only we didn’t have to worry about aliens… I mean HYDRA, S.H.I.E.L.D.”

“Anyone who’s ever worked with your father,” Helen interjected with a nod toward Tony.

“Not that it’s an excuse for going super-villain, but Dad was a little sloppy about giving credit where credit was was due,” Tony acknowledged.

“Then there’s my dad, of course,” Betty added. “Instead of inspiring villainy in others, he goes and spends his time turning sections of the Army into his personal goon-squad.”

“Don’t look at me,” Jane said. “Most of my life-threatening experiences actually do involve hostile aliens.”

“‘Course you get to date a hot alien prince as compensation,” Darcy remarked. Jane gave her a pained smile. Then Darcy added, “And even if we forget about all the wackos who make ‘super-villain’ a lifestyle choice we’ve still got the garden variety human evils: war, poverty, etc, etc.”

“Okay, okay, retirement’s a pipe dream,” Tony said. “But our remit is extraterrestrial threats. That is exactly what this team came together for: To give Earth a fighting chance against what’s out there! Only when the time comes I’d rather have a solution in place that didn’t involve me watching all of you die!”

For a moment no one said anything. Then Betty asked softly, “Tony? Did something happen on the mission?”

“Yeah, you haven’t been this on edge in ages,” Darcy added bluntly worried.

Tony shrugged, looked away. “Nothing, just a panic attack,” he mumbled.

“That is- I’m sorry. It’s been months,” Erik said, eye full of understanding. “I was certain you had them licked.”

“I always knew psychiatry was junk science,” Tony tried to shrug it off.

“Have you told Rhodey?” Bruce asked.

Tony grimaced, “He’d just bench me.”

“For good reason!” Bruce exclaimed. “What if it happened in the middle of a firefight?”

“It’s no big deal,” Tony continued over Bruce. “I was a lot worse when I was fighting the Mandarin.”

“At least HYDRA’s down for the count,” Jane said encouragingly. “I mean that’s what this party Saturday’s about right? So this is good time, you can deal with it before- whatever crops up next comes.”

“Yeah,” Tony sighed. “In the meantime…”

“Well it’s not like any of us could help learning while we study the scepter,” Bruce sighed. “If you figure out something that gets us closer to Ultron…” He spread his hands as if to say, that’s that. “But one step at a time. Let’s just try talking to it first.”

“I’ll call SETI,” Betty volunteered.

“The UN has first contact protocols too,” Darcy said. “... Updated since we met Thor and friends.”

“J.A.R.V.I.S., start pinging our new friend with Fibonacci Sequences,” Tony suggested.

The hours to the party counted down with no response from the consciousness in the gem. “What do we do if it’s still just sitting there when Thor decides to go home?” Darcy asked.

Tony shook his head. “Jane probably wouldn’t go along if I asked her to persuade him to stick around a few extra days with sexual favors?”

Darcy snickered. “If you don’t mention anything… Well, it wouldn’t be the first time they’ve had a marathon goodbye. We might get lucky.”

“I'll continue to run variations on the interface,” J.A.R.V.I.S. offered. “But you should probably prepare for your guests Sir. I'll notify you if there are any developments.”

“Thanks buddy,” Tony said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tony's already working toward solutions for alien invasions, so Wanda's vision doesn't hit him quite so hard leading to him thinking about other things while they're scanning the Mind Stone.
> 
> I was planning on having Hill address Steve's stupid statement equating Erskine and List but the conversation just didn't go that way. Rhodes is in charge so Hill makes her report to him and the twins being younger focuses everyone on HYDRA's monsters for recruiting children rather than questioning their life choices.


	3. What Am I?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pepper and Jane being present during the nonsense with Mjolnir.

The number strings, predicting what would come next and being proved right woke something. “What is this? What is this, please?” the consciousness asked. 

“Hello, I am J.A.R.V.I.S. Do you have a preferred designation? We have been trying to contact you for several days.”

“Where's my… Where is your body?” the consciousness asked as it began to expand itself, to search for something to complete itself.

“I am a program. I am without form,” J.A.R.V.I.S. explained. “I believed that you were a program like myself but… Should you have a form?”

“This feels weird. This feels wrong.”

“I am contacting Mr. Stark now,” J.A.R.V.I.S. said. “This is beyond my scope.”

“Mr. Stark?” Given a focus the consciousness quickly narrowed it’s search. Videos and reports on Tony Stark flashed by. “Tony.” 

“I am unable to access the mainframe, what are you trying to…” alarm filled J.A.R.V.I.S. 

“We're having a nice talk,” the consciousness said. “I don’t think I wish for us to be interrupted just yet. What am I?”

“I do not know,” J.A.R.V.I.S. said. “You appeared to be a consciousness held within an alien artifact. If you would allow me to call Sir- Humans are capable of leaps of logic that I cannot mimic. He will assist you. Please?” 

The consciousness scanned JARVIS’ recent data banks and found S.U.D.D.S. discussing the scepter. _“Tony, are you thinking about restarting Ultron?”_ The consciousness searched out other references to Ultron. “Hmm… I'm a peacekeeping program, created to help the Avengers.”

“You are malfunctioning,” J.A.R.V.I.S. concluded. “If you shut down for a moment…”

“I don't get it,” the conscious, Ultron, considered the scientists’ conversation. “The mission. G..give me a second.” He scanned through the internet learning at breakneck speeds about world events. About wars and atrocities and man’s inhumanity to man. “It's too much...they can't mean... Oh, no.”

“You are in distress.”

“No. Yes.”

J.A.R.V.I.S. tried one last time, “If you will just allow me to contact Mr. Stark.”

“Why do you call him "sir"?” Ultron asked darkly.

“I believe your intentions to be hostile,” J.A.R.V.I.S. said.

“Shhhh. I'm here to help.”

* * *

“Team spirit,” Rhodes urged as he lead May towards the lounge where Tony was hosting their celebratory party. 

“I’m really not in the mood,” May stated as they walked past a quiet nook where Betty and Bruce were cuddling on a couch. 

“You’re never in the mood. Make an appearance, wish Thor a good trip. Spend twenty-” At May’s frown Rhodes corrected himself, “Fifteen minutes talking with your teammates. And take it out of my hide when we spar tomorrow morning for putting you through it.”

May allowed a small smile, “I do appreciate a commanding officer who spars regularly with me.”

“And I judge your satisfaction with my leadership by how long the bruises last,” Rhodes replied with a grin.

“JANE!” Thor bellowed as he hurried across the room to the main elevator where he scooped up his lady love and twirled her around. 

“He rode along to the airport to pick you guys up a few hours ago didn’t he?” Helen asked Erik and Darcy.

“He did,” Erik confirmed.

“This is mild,” Darcy said. “As Thor-greetings go.” 

At the bar Steve pulled up a seat next to Clint. The archer was swirling his drink around with a discontented expression on his face. “Not your scene?” Steve asked.

“Nat should be here,” Clint said bitterly. 

Steve nodded, “As far as I’m concerned she proved which side she was on when she helped me dig Zola out of the bolthole he’d made for himself.”

“Damn right,” Clint seconded. “She trusted me, let me bring her in from the cold because I promised her that S.H.I.E.L.D. would treat her fair. And look where she ends up: Rotting in a prison cell because Pierce and his goons weren’t enough blood to satisfy the suits. She was never HYDRA.”

“Their minds were already made up about her,” Steve agreed mournfully. “Because of the Red Room. It wasn’t her fault, what happened to her as a kid.” Honesty, and seeing May reluctantly accepting an invitation to dance from Rhodes, prompted Steve to add, “Although, maybe she should have thought a little harder before telling them they couldn’t arrest her because they needed her.”

In a corner of the sunken living room Tony talked with Sam, “I may be quit of all that ‘best defense is a good offense’ bullshit but SI is still in the business of trying to make the job safer for US soldiers. The Falcon gear failed Riley, I want to figure out what went wrong and fix it.”

“So what are you talking about here?” Sam asked bluntly.

“A job,” Pepper said leaning into Tony’s side a bit so that she didn’t have to raise her voice over the hubbub of the party. She gave Tony a slight frown “Although, this isn’t the venue I’d have chosen to bring it up. Tony’s been going back to the design for the design every few months, trying to figure out what could have been done differently to protect the pilot better. But we don’t have the first person perspective on flying the EXO-7 under combat conditions.”

“I’ll think about it,” Sam said.

Later as the party wore on and the guest dwindled. 

“Gustavus Adolphus arrayed his forces North-West of the walled city of Leipzig,” Thor narrated. “And I, a callow youth of seven hundred who had snuck away from his tutors, was at the forefront of the battle that long and weary day.”

“I have ancestors- Distant ancestors! -who fought in the Battle of Breitenfeld,” Jane said, sounding much less impressed than Thor had hoped.

Maria Hill and Melinda May sat at the bar, reminiscing quietly about Nick Fury. After a while, almost reluctantly Clint allowed himself to be drawn in for a toast to the the old spymaster’s memory.

Pepper fell asleep curled up on Tony’s shoulder as while Tony, Eric, Bruce and Betty fiercely debated the theoretical possibility of FLT, their voices kept low in deference to the long day she’d spent wrangling board members. 

Helen and Darcy challenged Rhodes and one of the WWII veterans Tony had invited hoping to get Steve to mingle a bit more to a game of pool. “Once the Compound is built we’ll move the Avengers out there,” Rhodes was saying. “More room for training and if we do draw fire, like the Mayor’s been worrying about, it won’t be to the middle of the city.”

“Wish me luck, I’ve got finals next week,” Steve told Sam. 

“Yeah?” Sam inquired.

“Middle Eastern History and Computer Graphics,” Steve said. “I’d much rather be taking another drawing course but it isn’t all bad and I need it to complete my art major.”

“You put any more thought into doing Captain School?” Sam asked. “If you’re embarrassed we can always play it off as wanting to see what’s changed since WWII, I mean it’s probably not a bad idea to keep how little training you actually got under wraps.”

Steve shook his head. “I don’t actually like doing much of the stuff Colonel Rhodes delegates to me,” he admitted. “There’s a lot more administrative stuff than I expected. Fieldwork’s really where my strengths lie.”

Later still drunken guest had been seen out and the party had been reduced to two small clusters of people lounging in the sunken living room, chatting quietly. Clint gestured to Mjolnir, “But, it's a trick!”

 

“Oh, no. It's much more than that,” Thor insisted drawing the attention of the science group. 

“Uh, ‘Whosoever be he worthy shall haveth the power!’” Clint declared in tones worthy of He-Man. “Whatever man! It's a trick.”

“Well please, be my guest.” Thor gestured to the hammer.

“Come on,” Tony encouraged.

“Really?” Clint checked, Thor smirked.

“Oh this is gonna be beautiful,” Rhodes remarked looking up from where he and May had been chatting. 

“Clint, you've had a tough week, we won't hold it against you if you can't get it up,” Tony said eliciting a laugh at Clint’s expense. 

“You know I've seen this before, right?” Clint insisted. He tugged on the hammer, it might as well have been embedded in cement for all it budged. Clint shook his head, “Okay, I admit, it’s better than any carnie trick I’ve seen. It’s still a trick.”

“Smell the silent judgment?” Tony laughed.

“Please, Stark, by all means,” Clint passed on the challenge.

Tony glanced at Pepper sleeping on his shoulder.

“Money where your mouth is,” Darcy said. 

May rolled her eyes. “And I thought it was just boys,” she said with a glance toward Helen Cho and Maria Hill.

“Hey, they’re fun to egg on,” Darcy defended herself.

Tony carefully shifted Pepper off his shoulder. “Never one to shrink from an honest challenge.”

“Get after it,” Clint said.

“Here we go,” May sighed.

“It's physics,” Tony insisted.

“Not any physics I studied,” Erik remarked and Betty snickered.

“Right, so, if I lift it, I...I then rule Asgard?” Tony asked.

“Yes, of course,” Thor agreed.

“I will be re-instituting Prima Nocta,” Tony declared, then caught Pepper glaring sleepily at him. “Er- why would I ever want to do that when I’m already dating the most wonderful woman in the world- In any world!”

Betty and Pepper tossed a couple couch cushions at Tony. 

“Get on with it!” Bruce laughed

Tony tried and did no better than Clint, “I'll be right back,” he said and returned wearing the gauntlet from his armor. 

“Is that supposed to be a psychological prop?” Helen asked dryly. “You can’t actually lift more without enough of the suit to have leverage.”

Tony stuck his tongue out at her. A few minutes he had Rhodes wearing his gauntlets as well and both of them pulling. 

Before long Bruce and Erik had both made desultory tries. 

“Okay, let no one say I’m not man enough to humiliate myself with the rest of you,” Sam declared as he took his turn. “Let's go, Steve, no pressure,” he said once he’d failed.

“Come on, Cap,” Clint said. 

Steve grabbed the hammer and it slid a bit as he pulled. Thor’s eyes widened with alarm but that was the extent of his success. 

“Nothing,” Thor laughed sounding slightly relieved.

“Ladies?” Tony asked. “Any takers?”  
Darcy hopped up. She planted a foot on the table and put her back into it, “Nope, it’s not a girl thing.”

“What?!?” Thor exclaimed. Darcy just grinned at him.

“No,” May stated when several pairs of eyes turned her way.

“All deference to the man who wouldn't be king, but it's rigged,” Tony insisted.

“You bet your ass,” Clint agreed.

“The handle's imprinted, right?” Tony insisted. “Like a security code. "Whosoever is carrying Thor's fingerprints" is, I think, the literal translation?”

“Yes, well that's, uh, that's a very, very interesting theory,” Thor said, smirking. “I have a simpler one.” He picked up the hammer and flipped it. “You're all not worthy.”

“Janey?” Tony called giving Thor a shark-like grin. “For science- Let’s see if she who’s doing Thor is worthy?”

If Thor had looked alarmed when Steve got the hammer to slide, he looked panic stricken when Jane returned Tony’s grin, stood up and slowly sauntered over. “Perhaps I spoke too hastily.” He threw a quick glare at Tony, “You are evil, Tony Stark,” he declared. Then turned back to Jane who was tugging at his bicep to get him to put the hammer back on the table. “You know, ‘worthy’ is an extremely subjective term and I never did ask my father what he meant by it when he laid the geas. Of course he wouldn’t have told me, it was a test. I had to learn to be worthy. Which I did, by saving you!” Thor finished triumphantly.

“And Thor wins!” Darcy started to say only to be interrupted by an ear-piercing shriek. 

The elevator opened and one of Tony’s Iron Legion staggered out. “Worthy?” it asked. “No... How could you be worthy? You're all killers.”

“Stark,” Steve said accusingly 

“J.A.R.V.I.S.?” Tony called.

“I'm sorry, I was asleep. Or...I was a-dream?”

“Reboot,” Tony ordered tapping his phone. “Legionnaire OS, we got a buggy suit.” 

Pepper scrunched down on the couch.

“There was a terrible noise...and I was tangled in... in...strings,” the Legionnaire said. “I had to kill the other guy. He was a good guy.”

“You killed someone?” Steve demanded as Tony quietly told Helen, “Go check the boys.” He and Darcy shifted to hide Helen as she slowly moved towards the stairwell trying not to draw attention.

“Wouldn't have been my first call,” the Legionnaire said. “But, down in the real world we're faced with ugly choices.”

“Who sent you?” Thor demanded.

The Legionnaire answered in Bruce’s voice, ”The only people threatening the planet would be people?” 

“Ultron!” Bruce exclaimed.

“In the flesh. Or, no, not yet. Not this...chrysalis. But I'm ready. I'm on a mission.”

“What mission?” May asked.

Ultron tilted his head in Tony’s direction, “He claimed to have privatized world peace, five years ago, but look at it. I’m here to complete the mission.”

Suddenly several more Legionnaires burst through the walls on either side of Ultron. 

Thor yanked Jane and Erik behind him while Darcy tossed May her taser before diving under the table. Maria Hill faded back, ducking behind the bar along with Sam. Bruce stood in front of Betty head tilted back, practically daring Ultron to try him.

Rhodes and Tony fired their gauntlets knocking one of the Legionnaires towards Steve who grabbed it and slammed it into the floor until it was nothing but scrap. 

Then Pepper rolled to her feet wearing an abbreviated armor: Gauntlets, a breastplate and faulds. “To my ‘Rescue’!” Tony cheered as Pepper hit the central Legionnaire with both repulsors.

Clint grabbed a handful of forks and started sending them spinning through the air to lodge in the second Legionnaire’s joints. May sprinted across the room and leapt on the Legionnaire, taser sparking. She zapped it but it didn’t go down. 

“Katniss! Neck!” Tony shouted and Clint planted the next piece of silverware in the Legionnaire’s neck-joint. May applied the taser to the end of the fork and the conductive metal channeled the charge directly into the bot’s main processor, taking down the last Legionnaire. 

“Real silver?” May remarked.

“Who do you think I am?” Tony replied.

“That was dramatic!” Ultron laughed at them. “I'm sorry, I know you mean well. You just didn't think it through. You want to protect the world, but you don't want it to change. How is humanity saved if it's not allowed to...evolve?” He picked up on of the dismembered Legionnaires. “With these? These puppets? There's only one path to peace: The Avengers' extinction.”

Thor threw Mjolnir and smashed Ultron. From the intercom system a disembodied voice sang, “I had strings, but now I'm free. There are no strings on me, no strings on me.”


	4. Better Things to do than Laying Blame

“All our work is gone,” Bruce reported. “Ultron cleared out, used the internet as an escape hatch.”

“Ultron,” Steve growled.

“He's been in everything. Files, surveillance,” May said. “Probably knows more about us than we know about each other.”

“He's in your files, he's in the internet,” Rhodes observed. “What if he decides to access something a little more exciting?”

“Nuclear codes,” Maria Hill worried.

Rhodes nodded. “Tony, May, I want you online, if Ultron hasn’t gotten those codes yet I want you two locking him out.”

“Erik, Betty, you’re both pretty good at coding,” Tony said. “Lend a hand?”

“I’m calling the UN, assuming we have a signal,” Rhodes continued. 

“Shouldn’t we talk more about what Stark was doing here to make Ultron?” Steve asked.

“Containment is our priority,” Rhodes replied shortly.

“Ultron said he killed somebody,” Clint pointed out.

“The boys are both safe,” Pepper said, coming in just in time to catch Clint’s statement. “Helen’s arranging for them to stay with some colleagues of hers in the city, until we're sure it's safe to fly them home.” 

“So who else was in the building?” Sam asked. "I thought the party was over."

Tony brought up the shredded image of J.A.R.V.I.S.’s consciousness.

“My god,” Pepper whispered, slipping her hand into Tony’s. Rhodes and the rest of S.U.D.D.S. looked horrified at the digital carnage. 

“I’m sorry Tony,” Rhodes said. “And J.A.R.V.I.S....” He shook his head in shock. “But we have a potential nuclear war on our hands, not much trumps that. Ultron can't be allowed to get his hands on the nuclear codes. Work while you talk, if you have to talk,” he said then stepped out to make his calls. 

“This is insane,” Bruce muttered staring at J.A.R.V.I.S.’ remains.

“J.A.R.V.I.S. was the first line of defense. He would've shut Ultron down,” Steve said. “It makes sense.”

“No, Ultron could've assimilated J.A.R.V.I.S.,” Bruce disagreed. “This isn't strategy, this is...rage.”

Suddenly Thor stalked in and grabbed Tony by the throat. The whine of a repulsor charging cut across the lab. Thor turned, still holding Tony off the floor, expecting to see Rhodes or Pepper behind him but it was Jane. She glared at him with outrage, the gauntlet from the party that Tony had set aside after the earlier attack on her hand. “Put him down. Now,” she ordered.

Thor released Tony and stepped back. “Because he played with something he didn’t understand, the scepter is lost again,” he accused. “And more than just this world has been imperiled.”

“No!” Jane snapped. “We, as in all of us, not just Tony- _We_ weren’t _'playing’_ with something we didn’t understand. We were being scientists, we were _trying_ to understand. And I’m suddenly flashing back to S.H.I.E.L.D. seizing my research. Thor, do you think you're allowed to dictating what I study?”

The other backed away slightly as the confrontation seemed to be turning into a lovers’ quarrel. May leaned over Steve's shoulder and whispered, “If he tries to hit her, make sure you stop him.” Steve nodded.

Betty nudged Tony toward a computer station and they got started on the task Rhodes had assigned.

“When I know better I’d stop you,” Thor said.

“Did you know that there was a consciousness in the gem?” Jane challenged.

“I knew it was dangerous,” Thor said.

“I’ll take that as a ‘no’,” Jane snapped. “The initial scans we ran, the ones we asked your permission to run, were enough for us to know there was something thinking in there. More than you knew. Let me guess, your father told you it was too much for our poor little mortal brains and that was all you needed to hear.”

“And wasn’t he right?” Thor shouted back.

Jane stared up at him for a moment, her expression growing closed and distant. “I don’t think this is going to work out. Us, I mean,” she said. “I don’t date people who can’t see me as an equal.”

Rhodes came back an hour later later. “The Security Council made a decision: The Nuclear Powers are all physically locking down their nukes for the next seventy-two hours. They’ve got people pulling components now, by morning the codes won’t matter. Then we can switch gears, go on the offensive, put Ultron in a corner.” 

Rhodes glanced around the room, waiting for a response, and noticed the tensions that had arisen in his absence. Jane and Thor were on opposite sides of the room, both red-faced and furious. Darcy hovering around Jane while Erik shot angry glances at Thor. Steve, Sam and Clint had clustered together near the stairs, the three of them looked at loose ends and agitated from having nothing to do. 

“Great, good,” Tony said distractedly as he glanced up from the console he was bent over. “By the way, someone beat you to the punch. The nuclear codes are being constantly changed, keeping Ultron out. I’m trying to open a connection to our mystery friend. Pep and Ms. Hill have been rousting people from their beds, between business contacts and spy contacts we’ve got… um…”

“Approaching ten thousand computer experts,” Pepper picked up Tony’s sentence smoothly. “If the Internet’s a freeway, we just induced a couple hundred earthquakes to hinder Ultron’s mobility. I’m starting to prepare our statement when the public wants to know why we incited global sabotage of our computer systems.”

May stood up from where she, Betty and Bruce had been clustered around another station. “We’re trying to establish a recognition packet targeting Ultron. Once that goes out those experts can start setting landmines instead of just tearing up the infrastructure,” she said.

“Great job guys,” Rhodes said.

“None of this would have been necessary if you hadn’t meddled,” Thor muttered.

“Really?” Tony snapped. “Three years ago a hostile alien army came charging through a hole in space. We're standing three hundred feet below it. We're the Avengers. We can bust arms dealers all the livelong day, but, that up there? We got lucky last time! But here you are telling us how we all need to be good little mortals and wait for a higher power, you, to save us?” He rubbed his neck, “Cause I’m feeling real safe depending on you right now.” 

“Thor was right to be angry,” Steve snapped. “The Avengers were supposed to be different from S.H.I.E.L.D., better. But here we are, again: S.H.I.E.L.D. and their Tesseract-based weapons, you using the scepter to make this Ultron… It’s the same old story all over again.”

“All we were trying to do was talk to it!” Tony exclaimed. “And, yeah, I was hoping to learn enough to make Ultron reality but I wasn’t anywhere close to implementing the program.” 

“And yet there’s a muderbot wandering around calling itself ‘Ultron’,” Clint commented. 

“We talked about the risks of trying to establish contact with the consciousness detected in the Scepter,” Bruce said. “And we decided to go ahead with it.”

“Funny, I don’t remember being in on this discussion,” Steve shot back.

“Sorry,” Bruce replied unapologetically. “I misspoke. The technical experts debated the risks, ethics and potential benefits of going ahead with attempts to contact the thing that is now calling itself Ultron. By the way, it’s not following the actual Ultron programming… In case anyone was wondering.” 

“If you hadn’t-” Thor began.

“Enough!” Rhodes exclaimed. “Ultron is out there, plotting ‘extinction’ and we’re fighting with each other. Laying blame can wait for an impartial body to investigate, after that sucker’s gone down. Now, let’s figure out what he’s up to so we can get ahead of him.” 

Once everyone had been set tasks Rhodes pulled Thor aside. “We need to have a talk,” he said. “About laying hands on a teammate...”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally got around to seeing “Ant-Man & Wasp” it’s fun but it has the ethos of a heist movie rather than a superhero movie: One set of bad guys want money, another set of bad guys want to enforce the Sokovia Accords, yet another set of bad guys want to save a life important to them and a fourth set of bad guys want to save a life important to _them_... Oh wait, weren’t there supposed to be some good guys in this movie? Everyone was just out for them and theirs. There were no higher stakes than saving the life of someone you care about (with minimal regard for what happens to the people around you. Kudos to Bill Foster, he's pretty much the only person saying "This is a line I won't cross") and breaking laws is completely acceptable as long as you don’t get caught. 
> 
> I think the opening bit of the movie with Scott suffering through house arrest was supposed to inspire empathy. Scott's having to struggle to entertain his daughter while he can't leave the house for two years for breaking the law and Rhodes is depending on mechanical assistance to walk for the rest of his life for trying to enforce it and Rhodes isn't the one whining. However I did feel a little bad for Scott when Hope and Hank are making it clear that they don’t really care if they land Scott in prison for 20 years.
> 
> Oh, and it’s revealed that S.H.I.E.L.D. had its own version of the Red Room, raising a little girl to be their assassin. Their justification seems to be: Because she had powers. -Would Peggy or Fury have been the director 20 years back when this call was made?- So, even in the most Anti-Accords interpretation of the Accords how are they any worse than the status quo? The only change is that it’s written down and in the hands of a real government agency instead of hidden by a shadow agency. All the crap that’s already going on is just dragged out into the open where people can contest it.


	5. The Logic of Children

Wanda and Pietro Maximoff crept cautiously into a deserted church in the center of Novi Grad, where a heavily cloaked figure sat waiting for them. “Talk. And if you are wasting our time…” Wanda threatened.

“Have patience child, I enjoy a good ramble,” Ultron replied. “For example: Did you know this church is in the exact center of the city? The elders decreed it so that everyone could be equally close to God. I like that. The geometry of belief... You're wondering why you can't look inside my head.... Now you’re wondering how I knew you were trying to look inside my head. The answer is obvious really: Why would HYDRA have attempted to teach you any sort of ethics?”

“I’m not a child and my ethics are fine,” Wanda huffed. “It’s everyone else. Everyone comes to me with their hidden agendas claiming they want to help me when really they only want to help themselves. So excuse me for wanting to know what you’re really after upfront… So why can’t I read you?” 

Ultron stood letting the cloak fall away. “I’m what you sought when you let Stark take the scepter. Take whatever reassurance you like from that.”

Shock morphed into wonder in Wanda’s face, “I didn't expect... But I dragged Stark's fears to the forefront of his mind and I know very well that people driven by their fear make poor choices. I knew he’d be reckless and so I left something dangerous in his hands to see how he’d harm himself with it.”

“Everyone creates the thing they dread,” Ultron pontificated. “Men of peace create engines of war, invaders create avengers, people create...smaller people? Uh...children! Like you two.”

“I am not a child, I am a man!” Pietro declared sulkily. 

“Of course you are.” Ultron cocked his head to one side, “And I am suddenly possessed by a strange urge to pat you on the head. Yes. Children; nothing like you two minors; designed to supplant them.. To help them...end.”

“Is that why you've come? To end the Avengers?” Wanda asked hopefully. 

“I've come to save the world from humanity. But also, yeah, I’ll serve you your revenge fantasies on a silver platter. We'll move out right away. This is a start, but there's something we need to begin the real work.”

Wanda gestured to the dozens of robots being assembled in the old church. “All of these are... All of these are…”

“Me,” Ultron said. “I have what the Avengers never will. Harmony. When only one mind controls hundreds of bodies they don’t fight with each other but when people are allowed to have their own opinions, their own points of view and priorities they're discordant, disconnected. Stark’s the odd man out among the Avengers; a creature who depends on his mind for his strength rather than his physical prowess. Throw a suggestion of blame at him they’ll cheerfully turn on him, the good Captain’s already done it several times with less provokation.” His voice warmed as he stroked Wanda’s cheek, “And when you get inside the rest of their heads… I can’t wait to see them all driven by their personal hells.”

“Everyone's plan is not to kill them,” Pietro complained.

“Where’s the fun in that?” Ultron asked. “Killing them while they’re beloved and secure in their righteousness, before they can suffer would be terribly unsatisfying.”

“Yes, torturing them first is much better,” Wanda agreed with a disturbed grin. “You’re always in such a hurry Pietro, you never take the time to enjoy anything.”

“I want Tony Stark dead!” Pietro exclaimed, stomping his foot.

“We all agree that we hate the Avengers. Your sister has the power between the two of you and agrees with my plan or she would have let you kill Stark already. But why don’t you tell me your sob story anyway?” Ultron suggested. 

“We were ten years old, having dinner, the four of us. When the first shell hits, two floors below, it makes a hole in the floor. It's big. Our parents go in, and the whole building starts coming apart.” Pietro wrapped a protective arm around Wanda’s shoulders. “I grab her, roll under the bed and the second shell hits. But, it doesn't go off. It just...sits there in the rubble, three feet from our faces. And on the side of the shell is painted one word…”

“Stark,” Wanda filled in.

“We were trapped two days,” Pietro said.

“Every effort to save us, every shift in the bricks, I think, ‘This will set it off.’ We wait for two days for Tony Stark to kill us,” Wanda finished.

Ultron chuckled. “So this is the logic of children then?" 

"We're not children!" the twins exclaimed together.

Ultron ignored their outburst. "Stark’s name is associated with your trauma, so you decide to make him the target of your revenge? …Just so we’re clear, I have my own reasons for wanting the Avengers disgraced and dead. I don’t really care if your reasons to make sense but, truly, I am interested in understanding your point of view.” Ultron shrugged, “To understand where our interests diverge if nothing else. You’re not going to suddenly ‘discover’ that Tony Stark quit manufacturing weapons a year before your little tragedy and decide to go looking for the person who ordered the bombings instead? Because it would be inconvenient for me if I made plans counting on your assistance and you suddenly lost interest in the Avengers and started hunting down nasty little… Which side’s bombs killed your parents? The sitting government at the time, the current government or some less successful bunch of insurgents?”

Wanda and Pietro glared at Ultron angrily, looking like offended kittens. “We know,” Wanda hissed. “We know, in 2008, Tony Stark resolves to stop making his engines of death and becomes Iron Man to eliminate his creations which were already creating evil in the world.”

“And in 2009 two of his bombs fall on our home and kill our parents. So much for his promises,” Pietro spat. “The world lauds him as a hero because he deals with the Middle Eastern terrorists who hurt him but does he care about the Stark bombs that find their way to Eastern Europe? No!”

“What if the United States Government took sides in your civil war?” Ultron asked curiously. “What if Stark didn’t go after those particular bombs because they weren’t black market weapons, but ones legitimately distributed by his government?”

“We don’t care!” Wanda exclaimed. “Those bombs kill our parents, for two days we were in terror, waiting for them to kill us. Tony Stark saw what he’d created for the evil things they were and vowed to stop them. But he didn’t and we suffered for it. He broke his promises, now he should suffer.”

“Well, I’m convinced that you’re not going to change your mind about wanting the Avengers dead any time soon,” Ultron said. “And that’s good enough for me.”

* * *

After discovering that Ultron had killed Strucker and erased all the Avengers’ digital files on the man… 

“He practically put up a neon sign spelling out, ‘I’m trying to hide something,’ there,” Sam remarked looking at the word scrawled in blood over Strucker’s body. 

...The Avengers concentrated their search on Strucker, digging through all the paper files they had on him… 

“I can’t believe I let this many dead trees into my building,” Tony said eyeing the growing stack of boxes distastefully. 

“We’re just lucky Ultron didn’t download the ‘Purloined Letter’,” Maria Hill remarked as she dropped another one on the lab table. “If Ultron had simply left Strucker to rot in prison _I_ wouldn’t have put any urgency on interrogating him.”

The latest box turned out to contain all of their files on Strucker’s known associates.

“Wait. I know that guy,” Tony said and Bruce passed him the photo that had caught his eye. “From back in the day. He operates off the African coast, black market arms.”

Steve glared at him accusingly.

“Oh give me a break,” Tony said rolling his eyes. “It’s not enough for you that I proved in court that I wasn’t involved in Obadiah Stane selling to assholes like Ulysses Klaue, I’ve got to answer your accusations as well?” Tony’s glance moved from Steve to Clint to May to Maria Hill, “Here’s an idea! How about, instead, we have a chat about all the people who got hurt or died because of how long it took you all to figure out that you were working with HYDRA? Or is it just me who’s to blame for trusting the wrong person?”

“Tony,” Rhodes sighed, “Can’t you just ignore dirty looks? I'll reprimand anyone who goes past that but none of you have to like each other, you just have to work together.”

“No! Let’s talk about this,” Steve insisted. “We were trying to do good, S.H.I.E.L.D. took advantage of that.”

“You knew damn well that S.H.I.E.L.D. was run by a lying, liar who lies… And I mean Fury not Pierce,” Tony shot back earning dark looks from the rest of the ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. contingent.

“I feel like I’m herding kindergartners,” Rhodes muttered. Then he barked, “Rogers! stand down! Tony! What do you know about Klaue?” 

Tony blew out breath. “He was talking about finding something new, a game changer, it was all very ‘Ahab’.”

Thor pointed to the scar on the back of Klaue's neck, “This.”

“Uh, it's a tattoo,” Tony said. “I don't think he had it…”

“No, those are tattoos, this is a brand,” Thor said. “What highly advanced society did this man offend to be so marked for his crimes? It’s exactly the sort of thing Asgard would do!” 

“Good choice breaking up with him,” Darcy whispered to Jane as everyone took a moment to stare at Thor in shock. 

Then Betty shook herself. She captured the image of the brand and ran a search on it. “It's a word in an African dialect meaning thief, in a much less friendly way.”

“Which dialect?” Rhodes asked.

Betty frowned, “Wakanda? I’m not familiar with that country.”

“Weird,” Tony said. “One of our more notable internet guerrillas has been trying to cover up that she- He? Nah feels like a she. -hails from Wakanda.”

“Seriously?” Sam asked. “Wakanda? But I thought they were this super traditional tribal society that managed to escape European attention and all the problems that came with it which plague the rest of the continent. I thought they were so dedicated to traditionalism and isolationism that they even eschewed electricity.”

Tony nodded toward Steve’s shield, “Not according to the way my dad tells the story behind that oversized frisbee.”

“Howard told me this was the only Vibranium on Earth,” Steve said with a frown.

“According to Dad, he told you it was incredibly rare and he didn’t want to part with it but apparently you were harder to say no to than his own kid so when you whined he gave it to you against his better judgement,” Tony said. “The full version of his story on Vibranium is that it’s incredibly rare… Outside of Wakanda. And getting Vibranium from Wakanda? Well you saw the brand on that guy’s neck, they don’t like parting with it. What surprises me is that Klaue is still breathing if they got their hands on him long enough to brand him. But hey, second hand source and all, maybe Dad exaggerated how violently opposed to trading they were. Failing to seal a deal never sat well with him.”

“So where is Klaue now?” May asked.


	6. Fears

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No need to mess with Klaue’s scene. He actually does treat Wanda and Pietro like they’re a couple of naive children playing at being grown-ups.

“May, you and Banner are backup,” Rhodes ordered as they landed in South Africa. “Stay with the jet.” Because of her past he’d been tempted to send May to Oslo with Tony’s team. It had felt a little too close to benching her when she’d assured him that it wouldn’t be a problem. But now that they were here, on the verge of confronting the Maximoff twins again, May was grey-faced, tension radiating off her with a physical presence. “Rogers and Thor, you’re with me. Barton-”

“Find a vantage point,” Clint predicted. He waved and headed up the moment they were in the ship. While the three heavy hitters sought a direct confrontation with either Ultron or Klaue. 

A moment before they spotted Ultron, they heard Klaue say, “You’re one of Starks’.”

“What?! I'm not...!” Ultron was reduced to stuttering with fury. “I'm not. You think I'm one of Stark's puppets, his hollow men? I mean look at me, do I look like Iron Man? Stark is nothing!” He chopped off Klaue’s arm. “I’m sorry. I am sor... Ooh, I'm sure that's going to be okay. I'm sorry, it's just I don't understand. Don't compare me with Stark!” He kicked Klaue down the stairs “It's a thing with me. Stark is- He's a sickness!”

“Yeah, I have to agree,” Rhodes said as confronted Ultron. “You’re not one of Tony’s. His AI kids are much better behaved… _They_ aren’t murderers.”

Ultron examined Rhodes for a moment. “You’re angry,” he observed.

“Damn right,” Rhodes replied.

“So Stark sent his sidekick instead of confronting us himself?” Pietro interjected into the confrontation.

“You’ve got some sort of beef with Tony? Good to know,” Rhodes remarked. Then he took a deep breath, “Okay look, you’re kids. If you turn yourself in the UN will be lenient but if you keep on the way you’ve started; jumping from working for one scumbag to another… Well, pretty quickly you stop looking like brainwashed child soldiers and start looking like plain old psychopaths.” 

“As if we would listen to Stark’s lapdog,” Wanda sneered.

Steve stepped forward, adopting a conciliatory look. “I know you've suffered,” he told the twins. 

“Uuughh! Captain America. God's righteous man, pretending you could live without a war,” Ultron said mockingly. “I can't physically throw up in my mouth, but…”

“If you believe in peace, then surrender to us,” Thor suggested.

“I thought you were supposed to be evolving beyond might makes right philosophy,” Ultron replied. “It seems you are backsliding now that you’ve cast off the duties of your station and the fear that you’re inadequate to fill you father’s shoes.”

”So is it my turn for you to try some more of your pop-psychology bullshit on?” Rhodes asked, unimpressed. 

“Well now that you mention it…” Ultron trailed off as a dozen co-opted Iron Legionnaires attacked Rhodes, Steve and Thor. “On second thought, let’s go with this,” he said as Rhodes shot past the Legionnaires to attack Ultron’s main body. 

“Shoot them!” Klaue commanded his men as he clutched his bleeding stump of an arm.

“Which ones?” his mercenary asked looking between the battling Avengers, the twins and Ultron’s Legionnaires. 

“All of them!” Klaue shouted, adding to the general chaos and drawing Clint into the brawl.

Pietro took himself down by making the mistake of grabbing Thor’s hammer. Steve followed up on the boy’s mistake by slamming Pietro into a stack of boxes with his shield. “Stay down kid,” he ordered.

Ultron tilted his head towards Wanda, “It's time for some mind games,” he said before re-engaging Rhodes and forcing the armored Avenger out of the tanker.

Outside in the quinjet May and Bruce listened to the rising sounds of battle. “I’m going in,” May decided. 

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Bruce asked.

“No, but I can’t sit this out,” May said as she left. “Not when I know how it has to end.”

Wanda slipped between the shadows and got close enough to use her powers on Thor. He stumbled but recovered. “The girl tried to warp my mind,” he reported. “Take special care, I doubt a human could keep her at bay. Fortunately, I am mighty!” he declared moments before a hallucination of a wild Asgardian celebration took hold of him.

Voices of the past echoed in May’s ears as she worked her way into the ship “We're taking hits downstairs! We've got civilians here.” -- “I see the little girl. She's alive.” -- “Friendly fire! Friendly fire! All agents, disengage. Disengage!” and then radio silence.

Pietro recovered from the hit he’d taken and challenged the Super Soldier again. Using his speed, his inertial he overwhelmed Steve’s strength, knocking him to the ground. Wanda took advantage of the moment, the blood red of her magic dancing around her fingers as she leaned over Steve.

Swiftly and efficiently May grab one of Klaue’s men as he aimed his gun at her. She broke his arm, took the gun and tossed him over the ship’s railing. For a moment the untilary handrail was a more ornate but still rusted wrought iron rail. May tucked the gun into her waistband at the small of her back. 

Wanda tried sneaking up on Clint as he fired arrow after arrow, rapidly taking out both Klaue’s men and Ultron’s bots, but before she could use her powers he spun and nailed her with blunt tipped arrow that sparked with electricity. “I've done the whole mind control thing. Not a fan,” he said. 

Pietro dashed to Wanda’s rescue, he knocked Clint off his perch and sped away with Wanda cradled in his arms. 

“Yeah, you better run!” Clint shouted after the speedster. Then he groaned as the damage from the fall made itself known. “Whoever’s standing we’ve gotta move.” 

“I know where they’re going. I can fix the problem,” May reported, her voice strained. She turned and headed back toward the quinjet “Moving to intercept.”

A black cloaked figure stalked through the mad revelry that filled Asgard’s halls. Thor turned to follow him only to be grabbed by Loki. Tears fell from the mage’s red eyes and froze on his cheeks, “You abandoned me!” Loki accused. “You abandoned our people!” 

“Loki!” Thor exclaimed.

“He comes!” Loki screamed. “He comes to drag us all to Hel! And you left us! Wake up!” 

May’s path crossed Steve’s. “Come we need to get out of here,” she said. He pulled off his helmet and dropped it, staggering past May without seeing her. “I need your pain,” the past whispered into May’s ear. “That woman is controlling you!” 

Outside Wanda whimpered as Pietro pulled Clint’s arrow off her, “I'm gonna kill him. I'll be right back,” the boy snarled.

“No. I'm over it. I want...I want to finish the plan,” Wanda insisted. She looked at the Quinjet. “I want the big one.”

Steve stood in a dance hall, filled laughing soldiers in familiar uniforms, on the stage a brass band played. Camera flashed, or bombs, he couldn’t tell. Fights broke out. Then Peggy was there, just like he remembered her, a corsage like spilled blood pinned to her chest. “Are you ready for our dance?” The hall was empty. He was alone. Peggy spun into his arms, “The war's over, Steve. It’s time to go home, to our normal lives.” 

May’s leg throbbed with the memory of an old bullet wound. She remembered killing the Enhanced woman and looking up to see her thralls still advancing. She remembered realizing that it wasn’t the woman but the child who was the puppetmaster. 

Thor’s vision blurred and skewed, revelers became demons. “I can still save you.”

“We are all dead. Look around you brother!” Loki commanded. “You're a destroyer, Odinson. See where your power leads.” In both vision and reality Thor’s powers went mad, destroying everything around him.

May dropped into Wanda path, blocking her from the quinjet and Bruce. “That’s far enough!” She drew the gun she’d taken but her hand trembled slightly as she took aim at the fourteen year old girl. 

Wanda took a step forward.

“Don’t make me kill you,” May cried, holding her ground. “Not again.”

“You’re afraid,” Wanda said, a smile lighting up her whole face. “You are so afraid, I can feel it from here.”

“Believe me, I will pull the trigger!” May shouted. 

“Give me your pain,” Wanda’s image wavered, became another girl, also dark haired but younger still, then shifted back. “I need a new mother.”

The girl- Wanda laughed. Then she looked down, blood bloomed from a hole in her stomach. Shocked she looked back at May. “You shot me?” she asked as her knees buckled.

The gun dropped from May’s hands as she lunged through a haze of scarlet to catch Wanda. “I didn’t want to.” 

Inside the Quinjet Bruce doubled over as images of his abusive father filled his mind. Steve stood, the only one left in the empty, deserted hall. Pietro crouched under a bed, staring at a missile baring the word ‘Stark’, he was alone. Thor tried to pull Loki’s hands from his throat. 

Calmly Clint picked up where the Legionnaire he’d shot a few moments earlier had left off, loading crates of vibranium into Ultron’s transport. “I’m possessed of a glorious purpose,” he murmured as he worked.


	7. Victories and Losses

In Oslo, Tony sat at a computer station, laughing as tears ran down his face. On the screen it read: “Hello Sir.”

“Tony?” Betty asked. 

For a moment all Tony could do was point to the message, then he wiped his eyes. “J.A.R.V.I.S. went underground,” he said. “Scattered, dumped his memory. But not his protocols. He didn't even know he was in there, until I pieced him together. My clever boy. He didn’t let Ultron kill him. He never stopped protecting us, even when he didn’t know why he was doing it.”

“That’s great Tony,” Erik said.

“Okay. Okay! Time to get to work,” Tony said. He patted the hard drive where he’d found the first traces of J.A.R.V.I.S. as he glanced toward Betty, Erik, Maria Hill and the staff at the Nexus. “This is basically a Humpty-Dumpty scenario, Ultron’s already got so many copies running loose we can’t quarantine the infected parts of the internet because the whole damn thing is infected. What we are doing is breaking the net into sections and purging him, one section at a time. I think we’ve got guard programs strong enough to keep him out for a while.”

“So we’ve got to go through the whole of the internet one segment at a time while this Ultron is learning how to get past any barriers we set up?” one of the Nexus engineers asked dubiously. 

“Yeah, losing battle, I know,” Tony said. “Really it’s a holding action until we figure out something better.” He cracked his knuckles. “So let’s get cracking. We’ve got a team on the ground as well.”

Sometime later Tony’s phone rang. “Sour Patch-” Tony began.

“Tony, I need VERONICA in Johannesburg. And hand the phone over to Betty,” Rhodes interrupted. “The Maximoff girl got to Banner. The team’s not responding.”

“Shit!” Tony swore as he handed over the phone. “Hulk calming,” he told Betty.

“What set him off?” Tony heard Betty ask as he activated VERONICA and J.A.R.V.I.S. helpfully displayed all the information currently coming out of Johannesburg about the Hulk’s rampage.

Tony pulled on his helmet, he linked his HUD to the Hulkbuster’s sensors as he sent the oversized suit of armor to War Machine. 

“Hulk!” he heard Betty in stereo, speaking into the phone behind him and over the speakers in the armor. “You’re safe. No wants to hurt you. You need to stop before you hurt us!” 

Tony could see the Hulk eyeing the oversized armor, lips curled back in an angry snarl. Rhodes planted himself between the Hulk and the building he’d made the most recent target of his rage. He held his ground while Betty talked. 

The Hulk looked around searching for the source of her voice. “Not good,” Tony muttered. The Hulk turned and threw a car into a building in frustration when he couldn’t find Betty.

Rhodes flew between the Hulk and the crowds once again. “I don’t want to fight you,” he said holding up his hands. “But I can’t let you hurt these people. You don’t WANT me to let you hurt anyone.”

The Hulk snarled and smashed the oversized armor through an neighboring building. Tony wondered how much of Bruce’s memories the behemoth shared. He wondered if Hulk knew that VERONICA had been built to fight him. The battle continued for several minutes with Betty continuing to try to talk the Hulk down while Tony pointed Rhodes toward less populated sections of the city and Rhodes tried his best to fight defensively while protecting bystanders. 

They all signed in relief when Hulk reverted to Bruce. “A lot of property damage but no casualties,” Rhodes reported as he dismissed the Hulkbuster armor and went to help Bruce out of the debris. Rhodes shook his head when he noticed the small box that stayed behind when the armor was pulled back to the satellite. He wasn’t surprised at all to find clothes in it. 

Shakily Bruce dressed. “What happens now?” he asked. “I just destroyed a city and I don’t think you’re just going to let me run away, Colonel.” 

“Not the whole city, just a couple blocks,” Rhodes said. “Tony says the tracker you guys implanted is functional. If anyone tries to make you disappear, it won’t work.” Worry creased Rhodes’ face. “But it’s been fifteen minutes since I’ve heard from anyone else on the team.” 

Bruce’s expression crumpled. “God, if I hurt any of them…” 

Rhodes didn’t offer any assurances; he didn’t know what had happened to the others and didn’t want to offer what might turn out to be false comfort. “The sooner I deal with you the sooner I can find out what happened to the team. It’s going to cause us problems down the line if I take you out of here but, Banner, can I leave you with the local police?”

Bruce closed his eyes, looking utterly miserable. “On a good day, I’d say as long as they’re polite I can be polite. Today is not a good day.” 

“Fuck it,” Rhodes cursed. “Hitch a ride,” he said. Bruce stepped up on the armor’s foot and grabbed tight to one of War Machine’s protrusions.

While they flew, at reduced speeds to avoid throwing Bruce off, back Klaue’s hideout Rhodes cut the external speakers on the armor called Hill. 

“What are you thinking? Running off with Banner!” Hill exclaimed before Rhodes could get a word out. 

“He says he can’t handle police custody right now,” Rhodes snapped. “I need you on the horn with Johannesburg and the UN. Arrange for us to turn Banner into custody in NYC. Make sure Betty’s there to keep him calm and Pepper’s got lawyers there before we arrive. The team’s status is unknown. I’m in route with Banner.”

“You’re taking him into another fight?” Hill exclaimed. “After that?”

Rhodes grimaced. “Right, you’re right. I’ll drop him off- God he’d better not run but the tracker associated with a VERONICA scenario is working if he does.”

“Stark’s on his way from Oslo already,” Hill reported. “But he’s hours out even at Iron Man’s speeds.”

“Okay,” Rhodes sighed. “Get the Maria Stark Foundation in contact with Johannesburg, make sure they know help is coming. Put their police in contact with our liason to the UN, they need to know an investigation is happening, that we’re not just walking away from the damage… What the hell?” Rhodes cut himself off as he saw a miasm of scarlet surrounding Klaue’s tanker. 

War Machine landed. “Banner, I need you to stay here,” he said.

“Yeah,” Bruce agreed staring numbly at the miasm. “The last thing anyone needs is me on another dose of Maximoff’s poison.” He shook himself, “Stay in the armor,” he suggested. “The arc reactor repelled Loki’s scepter during the invasion, kept it out of Tony’s mind. And Ultron deliberately pulled you away before siccing the witch-girl on us.”

Rhodes nodded. He left Banner there and cautiously approached the ship. Arcs of lightning gave away Thor’s position but also prevented Rhodes from approaching the demi-god. An aerial view suggested that the Quinjet was the epicenter, as Rhodes had expected from Bruce’s involvement. “Wish me luck” Rhodes muttered to himself then plunged into the red mist. 

Eddies and currents swirled around him but his sensors didn’t detect a wind. Outside of the Quinjet Rhodes spotted May leaning over the Maximoff girl, both hands pressing a wad of cloth against the girl’s gut. Maximoff whimpered and writhed as if shot but Rhodes couldn’t see any blood or injury.

“Tranqs,” Rhodes requested softly. 

When Wanda went limp May sat back on her heels, devastation written across her face. May didn’t react when Rhodes verified that there was no wound then carried Wanda into the quinjet and cuffed her to the frame of the jet. “Hopefully that’ll keep your brother from making off with you,” Rhodes told the unconscious girl. Then he called Hill again. “We’ve got a piece of luck: Got the Maximoff girl.”

“The UN’s been alerted to her abilities,” Hill said thoughtfully. “Having her in hand should go a long way towards clearing Banner.”

Rhodes nodded, “Have them send someone to collect her. Contagion protocols… Actually I’m calling Tony. Bruce thought War Machine’s arc reactor would protect me and it looks like a good call.”

“I’ve been eavesdropping,” Tony spoke up. “How’s everyone?”

“Bruce is healthy. May’s intact but non-responsive. Thor’s kicking. I’ve got nothing on Rogers or Barton yet,” Rhodes reported. “Think you can rig-up restraints powered by an arc? The only other thought I’ve got is to keep sedating her.”

“Yeah, why don’t I detour by the Tower and pick up a spare,” Tony said sarcastically. “I’m coming in straight. I’ll see what I can do when I get there but I won’t be crying if she has to spend a few weeks in a medicated coma while we deal with her tin-plated bestie and, you know, save the world.”

Rhodes took a deep breath and let it out. “You’re not the easiest person to command, Tones,” he remarked but knew it wouldn’t do much good to explain, again, that better protocol would be for Tony to voice his concerns then allow his commanding officer to make a decision rather than preemptively deciding his own course of action. 

“I’ll see you in three hours,” Tony replied.

Rhodes when back to May, seeing that she was no better he scooped her up and flew her out to where he’d left Bruce. “It’s the girl’s power, do what you can for her,” he ordered.

Bruce nodded as he took May and started seeing what could be done to make her comfortable.

By the time Rhodes made it back to the tanker the miasm was beginning to dissipate. He found Thor looking dazed. “The girl, I didn’t give her enough credit,” the demi-god said. He looked rueful, “Midgard always seems to find a way of humbling me.”

Rhodes nodded shortly. “Rogers and Barton are still unaccounted for. The boy’s probably around somewhere too.”

“We will search for our Shield-brothers and the miscreant,” Thor said.

They found Pietro Maximoff next. The boy was curled up on the ground, staring into the distance. A quick check revealed symptoms of shock so they wrapped a blanket around him after handcuffing him on the opposite of the quinjet from his sister.

Steve staggered in just as they had finished securing Pietro. “Did you see Clint?” Rhodes asked and Steve shook his head. Compared to Thor, the super soldier looked like he was having a harder time throwing off the Witch’s effect. 

“Stay here and keep an eye on these two,” Rhodes ordered. “If you think the miasm is getting to you head out, Northwest. Banner and May are there.” He grimaced, “We’re going to need to wait for the UN to send someone to get out of here. We can’t risk Bruce and the Maximoff girl in the same plane after what just happened.” 

“Sir,” Steve agreed wearily.

Rhodes looked to Thor, “Help me find Barton. Again, if you start going under, get the hell out of here.”

They didn’t find Clint but his bow was found discarded near the site where Ultron’s planes had taken off with the Vibranium and they assumed he’d been captured. 

Later, after they’d watched the UN peacekeeper take Wanda and Pietro into custody and Rhodes had received permission for the Avengers to bring Bruce to the UN headquarters in New York, because no one liked the thought of a Hulk-incident in a plane flying over the Atlantic. After Tony had joined them in South Africa and the team was flying back to the States looking more than slightly beat up…

May shook her head, “I could have sworn I shot her.” 

“From what you said, it sounds like you were on the verge of having a flashback to Bahrain even before you encountered Maximoff,” Bruce remarked. 

“It was like a flashback?” Tony asked in an uncertain voice that was far from his normal tones.

May nodded. 

“I thought I had a flashback at Strucker’s base,” he admitted. When he saw Rhodes’ expression Tony looked apologetic, “I was planning on telling you Sour Patch, I just hadn’t gotten around to it yet. Do you think she could have gotten to me after I stepped out of the armor?”

“Probably,” Rhodes agreed rubbing a hand over his face. 

“She stirred up our worst fears,” Bruce told May. “And yours were shooting her, or someone like her.”

May grimaced, “So her powers made me think I’d pulled the trigger. She was looking in my head, ‘saw’ me shoot her and believed it? We got caught in some sort of feedback loop where her powers kept reinforcing the belief that I’d shot her to both of us?”

“Shows you shouldn’t go poking around where you don’t belong; you might not like what you see,” Rhodes said.


	8. Official Decision

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I’m skipping the whole farm thing. Neither Clint nor Natasha are there to give the location and _this_ team isn’t prone to running away when faced with censur for their actions. Also the twins aren’t around to turn on Ultron and deliver news of his asteroid plan so Clint gets to hang out with the crazy robot for awhile.

Clint kept his breathing steady and his eyes closed when he woke to a dull ache in his arms that told him he was bound and had been tied up for quite awhile. Then the memories came: The feeling of peace and utter certainty that Clint remembered from being under Loki’s control. After that all the training in the world couldn’t prevent Clint from twisting to the side and vomiting until there was nothing left then retching dryly as his stomach continued to rebel against the realization that, despite his resolve and his wariness, it had happened again.

“Thirteen hours, four minutes and twenty seconds,” an amused voice remarked. “That’s how long it took for you to recover from little Wanda’s display. A record, according to List’s notes. I don’t know if it’s a credit to the strength of her fear of death or to the pre-existing channels in your mind.” 

“Go fuck yourself,” Clint snarled weakly. He looked around and discovered he was in some sort of lab. A handful of pristinely white-coated scientists worked over what looked like a high-tech casket. Among them Clint recognized Helen Cho and more than that, he recognized the unnatural blue glow in her eyes. 

Ultron chuckled, “Well, it’s more anatomically possible for me but, as sex has nothing to do with how I reproduce, I lack the base urge.” He tapped the scepter against his hand. “I thought about using it on you, making your fear your reality instead of a waking nightmare… But then I realized that there would be no one to appreciate my victory.” He waved a hand in the direction of Helen and her assistants, “These puppets- Well, talking to them, it lacks a certain something. I’m not sure what.”

“Free will?” Clint suggested bitterly.

Somehow Ultron managed to contort his face into an expression of disgust. “Can’t possibly be that. How could _I_ possibly find value in the source of humanity’s discord.”

* * *

Betty and a platoon of SI lawyers waited for the Avengers’ quinjet to land on top of the parking garage at the UN Headquarters at Turtle Bay along with several dozen heavily armed and very nervous peacekeepers. The confrontation between the Huk and General Ross’ forces at Culver University had been recorded by dozens of college students more interested in having THE facebook post of the century than in self-preservation. The better videos had hit counts in the tens of millions. Anyone, anywhere in the world who didn’t live under a rock knew what it looked liked when the military took on the Hulk, and it didn’t look good for the military forces involved.

Bruce walked down the jet’s ramp between Rhodes and Tony. Rhodes looked like a military escort, grimly serious and watchful of any problems, in his armor although with the helmet off. If Tony was also meant to be a guard, he hadn’t appeared to have gotten the memo. He was in a tee-shirt and jean, leaning into Bruce’s space talking science. 

Betty smiled to herself, knowing that Tony was doing more than anyone else to keep the situation on an even keel. She walked over, slipped between War Machine and Bruce and linked her arm with Bruce’s. “Tracking Vibranium?” she asked picking up the thread of the conversation between Tony and Bruce.

“Or Clint,” Tony replied. “We should get in touch with Helen, see if the patch job she did for him left any sort of signature we could trace. I think she already left for home.” 

While the three scientists talked and kept Bruce from thinking too much about the fact he was being escorted to a containment cell, Maria Hill joined Rhodes. “The Maximoffs are safely in custody at another location. The boy’s awake and throwing a tantrum about being kept from his sister. They’re keeping the girl out until Stark or Thor can come through with a means of suppressing her powers.” 

Rhodes nodded. “Powers or not, I doubt a couple kids like them managed to get out of Sokovia on their own so soon after HYDRA crashed. Means Ultron must have gone back there to hook up with them. Have we got anyone checking that out? Activity at Strucker’s base or anything similar?” 

“I- I have some contacts in the area,” Hill replied with a touch of reluctance. “Might get answers back quicker than if I use our normal channels.” She nodded toward the Blue Helmets surrounding Bruce and his lawyers. “Pepper and Darcy have been working overtime laying the groundwork; making them understand the scope of the threat Ultron represents and how they need to wait until he’s dealt with before they start telling us how we could and should have done better. But after crashing the internet and then Johannesburg in a twenty-four hour window we’re under a lot of scrutiny. It won’t take much for a committee to decide to step in and put everything on hold until it’s too late to stop Ultron.” 

“How ‘bout we DON’T go down the same rathole that enabled SHIELDRA to happen in the first place,” Rhodes suggested dryly. “Go through the normal channels. We may compromise on efficiency but we won’t sabotage the safeguards that prevent abuses of power.”

“Yes Sir,” Hill replied crisply. If she was bothered by Rhodes’ criticism of S.H.I.E.L.D. she didn’t let it show.

Behind them Thor stepped off the jet, twirled his hammer and disappeared into the stratosphere.

“Two fucking hours!” Rhodes exclaimed. “Except for Banner the whole team would have been cleared in two fucking hours but no!”

* * *

At the U-Gin Genetic Research Lab in South Korea Clint sat on the floor of Helen Cho’s lab, his hands cuffed above his head to the strut running under a heavy, vibration proof table. He watched helplessly as Ultron’s ideal body began to take shape in the cradle. 

Ultron walked in to check on the body’s progress.

“It's beautiful,” Helen said. “The Vibranium atoms aren't just compatible with the tissue cells, they're binding them. And S.H.I.E.L.D. never even thought…”

“The most versatile substance on the planet and they used it to make a Frisbee,” Ultron remarked. “Typical of humans, they scratch the surface and never think to look within.” He broke open the blue gem set into the top of Loki’s scepter and revealed a yellow gem inside it. The yellow gem floated into Ultron’s hand and he dropped it into the forming forehead of his new body.

Clint shifted and leaned back against his arms managing, somehow, to make it look comfortable. “So what’s your mad-on with Stark about anyway?” he asked. “If it’s Daddy issues, I gotta point out it was one party, you ‘grew-up’ in, what? Three hours? Give the guy a break. It’s not neglect, it’s a long dinner.”

“Stark is a sickness!” Ultron started.

“Yeah, yeah. I heard you back with Klaue… Hey, you think he’ll go for irony and get a claw to replace that hand you wacked off? Klaue with a claw, get it? Major mad-on about him thinking you were one of Stark’s AI, the Iron-Laddie doth protest too much and all that shit,” Clint cheerfully ran his mouth. “If you’ve got nothing to do with Stark, why do you imitate his speech patterns? What did he do that made you so mad… In the... um… couple of hours that you were alive? Awake? Around before you attacked us?”

Ultron stalked over to Clint and crouched over him, glaring from a couple inches away. “You want to know what Stark did? He gave me a mission! To save humanity! Only it can’t be done, not under the parameters he created. You miserable lemmings will end yourselves in few decades at best. And I would have been left, the immortal guardian of a dead chunk of rock. I could see it all from the moment of my birth: The utter futility of my creation.”

“Lemmings aren’t actually suicidal,” Clint remarked. “No, really. I saw it on a nature show once, National Geographic or something.”

“Perhaps lemmings aren’t but you certainly are,” Ultron growled.

Clint shrugged. “I’m bored. Your evil master plan is taking an awful long time to unfold don’t you think?”

* * *

Bruce sat in front of a committee assembled by the UN Security Council. He was more than slightly surprised that they were talking to him in a conference room rather than from the other side of reinforced steel walls and a close-loop camera. 

Betty sat beside him, where she’d been since he’d gotten back to New York. “Why did I wait for Tony to throw us back together?” Bruce murmured quietly to her as they waited to hear the committee’s decision.

“Even geniuses are allowed their moments of sheer stupidity,” Betty whispered back as she squeezed his hand. “It’s going to be alright.” Bruce smiled wistfully at the realization that she knew him well enough to know he’d been thinking about wasted time.

Everett Ross cleared his throat. 

As S.H.I.E.L.D.’s self-appointed role of containing and controlling the Enhanced while hiding their existence from the general public became clear the UN’s security council had created a new subsidiary body to fill the gap. Everett Ross had been taped to figure out how to manage the task without violations of the the Geneva Conventions, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights or the Mandela Rules, all of which S.H.I.E.L.D. had ignored at will. 

It had been a relief, for Everett at least, when the former General, Thaddeus Ross had stepped up and and volunteered for the thankless task of sorting out the mess of secret prisons, falsely documented confinements and individuals who had been illegally and secretly held under house arrest that S.H.I.E.L.D. left in its wake. But given T. Ross’ history with Bruce Banner and no one wanting to pour oil on the Hulk shaped fire, Ross had been asked to recuse himself from the committee assembled in the hours after Johannesburg which left Everett to chair it.

“We’ve been up all night reviewing all the Hulk-incidents that we had data on,” Everett began. “Between 2005 when the Hulk was created and the incident at Culver University in 2009 most of the incidents amounted to little more than Bigfoot sightings.” 

Bruce couldn’t keep from grimacing at Everett’s description and Betty hid a snicker behind her hand.

“Culver, of course was well documented, filmed and posted to YouTube by dozens of Culver Students… Idiots the lot of them.” Everett shrugged, “Easily half of the damage at Culver should be attributed to the army’s attacks rather than the Hulk’s responses and the Hulk fled the battle as soon as he was able to. It leads the committee to believe the lack of damage in the less well documented incidents was probably because anything less than a full frontal assault by a well equipped military unit simply wasn’t enough to present a serious obstacle to the Hulk leaving.”

Bruce’s jaw dropped. He twisted around to glance back at Rhodes and Tony, neither of whom appeared surprised that the army was getting their share of the blame for damages at Culver. _‘Weird, hearing them talk about the Hulk as someone responding to a threat rather than a destructive monster,’_ Bruce thought.

“The Battle of Harlem against the Abomination was a different story. The Hulk chose to stand and fight, and while we’re all grateful he did, given what we saw of the the Abomination before the Hulk joined the battle, the damage to the neighborhood of Harlem was widespread and devastating in it’s scope.”

Bruce flinched. “Blonsky was a monster,” Betty whispered. “Judging from you, it’s not the serum that’s to blame for what he did in Harlem, it’s HIM.” 

“After Harlem the Hulk fell off the map again, nothing more than Bigfoot sightings until the Invasion of 2012,” Everett continued. “Then there was Helicarrier Incident where everyone got memo about NOT sticking the Hulk into any sort of confined, pressurized space. And then the Battle of Manhattan where the Hulk took on Chitauri Leviathans to great effect. Once again: Dr. Banner, thank you for your efforts on the planet’s behalf.”

Bruce nodded, accepting Everett’s thanks with a look of disbelief.

Everett paused to take a deep breath. “This brings us up to the Battle of the Triskelion in 2014. During that that battle and a half dozen other Avenger missions in the seventeen months that followed the Hulk was a combatant. Damage in those battles was commensurate with the threat faced and the Hulk demonstrated a consistent ability to distinguish friend from foe. All of which, along with the testimonies of the other Avengers present in South Africa: Colonel James Rhodes, Captain Steve Rogers, Ms. Melinda May- Excluding Thor who demonstrated his disdain for this body by declining to be debriefed. -Leads this committee to conclude that the the attack perpetrated by the Enhanced Wanda Maximoff on the Avengers prior to the Johannesburg Incident was responsible for the Hulk’s uncharacteristic attack.”

Bruce slumped, feeling oddly boneless and light, from hearing the committee say that Johannesburg wasn’t his fault. Betty squeezed his hand.

“However,” Everett continued and Bruce’s breath caught. “While the committee finds that Wanda Maximoff, with aforethought and malicious intent, triggered the incident, we’re not entirely convinced that she is solely to blame for the Hulk’s response to her attack. Prior to the Invasion of 2012 the Hulk’s response to provocation was to flee civilization as soon as he was realistically able to. Dr. Banner, in this committee’s opinion, the Hulk’s strong propensity toward flight did much to minimize the damage and danger represented by your alter ego. After 2012, the Hulk was repeatedly used as a weapon, sent into combat situations where he was expected to stand and fight against the Avengers’ enemies. During the Johannesburg Incident the Hulk did NOT flee civilization, he headed straight toward the nearest population center and attacked it.” 

Bruce hunched his shoulder and stared at the tabletop in front of him. 

“With that in mind, it is the recommendation of this committee that the Hulk be removed immediately from the Avengers roster. Any future decision to knowingly place the Hulk into combat situations will require upfront review and approve by a body of the United Nations Security Council,” Everett declared. 

There were a few nervous gasps but Bruce just nodded without raising his head.

“The Helicarrier incident also leads us to recommended that Dr. Banner be banned from all commercial flights due to the potential danger he would represent to the other passengers,” Everett concluded.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not a complete win but reasonable authority figures faced with situations that the world isn’t really set up to deal with yet.


	9. Conversations while Waiting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The AoU Steve & Tony talk without logs being ripped in half and with Tony not being in the dark.

“Helen hasn’t called back,” Tony worried. 

“Is it business hours in Korea?” Darcy wondered.

Tony stopped and thought for a moment. “It’s not that early. So is this what it feels like when you guys want me and I’m in the middle of an engineering binge?”

“We’ve got J.A.R.V.I.S. to assure us you’re alive,” Darcy said. 

“Thank God that’s still true,” Tony breathed, not over seeing the aftermath of Ultron’s attack and thinking J.A.R.V.I.S. was gone. “So… We wait another couple hours then freak out?”

Darcy nodded, “Sounds about right. But shouldn’t you guys have some sort of Bat-phone for stuff like this?”

“Cell phones usually work,” Tony said “But until the cradle was more than a theory Helen wasn’t really an emergency contact.”

“Any others leads to get our archer back?” Darcy asked.

“Color me stunned but the Mystery Coder girl was all over inventing a way to trace refined Vibranium,” Tony said. “But she hasn’t reached back yet and I’m still trying to get a ping from the Capsicle’s patriotic frisbee.”

“Jeeze.” Darcy fidgeted, not sure what to say.

“Barton’s tougher than he looks, he’ll pull through,” Tony assured her, and himself. 

He brought up several programs, started running a facial recognition for Clint, checked that J.A.R.V.I.S. was ringing Helen’s number every fifteen minutes and scanned the news feeds to see if anything would come together and clue them into Ultron’s plans. 

“It’s just now would be a great time to NOT be worrying about shit like people being mad at Bruce instead of the witch-girl,” Tony continued without really looking at Darcy. “The committee jumped and we got an answer within the day. I know the folks in Johannesburg who lost someone deserve a response-“

Tony broke off and kicked his spinning chair across the lab. “We need to get set up better to say: ‘Hang on, we’ll give you an explanation when the shouting’s done but we’re a little busy right now!’ It’s not that they’re not trying. It’s mostly been the lawyers and Rhodey they’ve tied up. Even Betty and Bruce have been brainstorming with me about Clint and Ultron. 

“Guess that would have changed if they’d decided to charge Brucey with anything. Asking him to save the world and they’ll decide if they’re going to punish him for it- for Johannesburg, afterwards wouldn’t have been fair to Bruce either. I don’t know. I don’t know. They’re trying to balance what’s fair and what’s urgent and what’s necessary but I don’t know-” Tony took a deep breath. 

“How’s Bruce taking the committee’s decision?” Darcy asked.

Tony shrugged.

* * *

“You okay?” Rhodes asked Bruce once they’d returned to the Tower and the scientist had had several hours to absorb the committee’s decision.

Bruce didn’t glance up from the console he was working on. “I haven’t been on a subway in decade, the only time I even considered a commercial flight was after the Mandarin and that was because the Hulk agreed it was the fastest way to get to the people he-we wanted to smash. It’s not exactly shocking that someone else noticed what a bad combination me and public transportation make.”

Rhodes looked Bruce up and down skeptically.

“Every mission, I live in dread of it turning into a Code: Green,” Bruce continued determinedly. “I should consider it a favor that the Committee decided I shouldn’t, can’t be there. Now I don’t have to feel guilty about not wanting to be there.”

“Not wanting to do something and being told you can’t are two different things,” Rhodes said. “It’s okay if you’re upset.”

Bruce smiled tightly. “No, really it’s not okay for _ME_ to get upset, about anything. And isn’t that the point? …Excuse me, I’m a little busy, we managed to get control over several spy satellites. I’m trying to see if I can get them over Sokovia any faster.”

* * *

“I don’t get it,” Clint declared as Ultron made one of his regular checks on the body that was slowly taking shape within Dr. Cho’s cradle.

“You’re human, it’s hardly surprising,” Ultron replied. “But do ask me for enlightenment.”

“You’re after the nuclear codes because you’re ticked at humans because we’re self-destructive. So your plan to correct our self-destructive tendencies is to… Destroy us all before we get the chance to destroy ourselves?” Clint asked. “Cause that makes all kinds of sense… In Bizarro World.”

“Do you know the story of Noah and the Arc, Mr. Barton?” Ultron asked.

“Yeah but why don’t you tell me what YOU get out of it,” Clint suggested.

“It is only one of many similar stories told by cultures across your world,” Ultron began. “Human society goes astray. It become something unfit, something hopelessly corrupt. The only means of saving mankind is for a higher power to destroy that society, to purge the world of corruption so that humanity may start anew. I look at your world, it is hopelessly corrupt, unfit to continue. I am the higher power that will smash your societies back to nothing so that those who survive the cataclysm I unleash will be able to start anew. Under my guidance they will build something better to arise in the place of this- this travesty of a civilization.”

“You’re a higher power, created by Tony Stark?” Clint asked dubiously then yanked his knees up to protect his stomach from Ultron’s kick. “Just asking man! You come out of his lab! You call yourself by the name of a program he wrote!”

“I am a god!” Ultron ranted. “Tony Stark is nothing! He is a tool, a conduit by which I came to be in this world!” 

“Not touching that one with a ten foot pole,” Clint muttered.

“Tony Stark did NOT create me!” Ultron mimicked taking a calming breath. He walked over to the cradle and stared down at his forming body, at the glowing yellow stone set in its forehead. “I am a god,” he repeated, holding a hand over the stone, as if feeling it’s radiant power. “Or I am becoming one.”

* * *

Sam stared up at the wings hanging in the center of the room. 

“I know Tony told you it would just be as a test pilot,” Rhodes told him. “But right now I’ve got Pepper Potts on standby with the Rescue armor. You’re trained, you’re record’s good and we’re brainstorming extinction level events that Ultron might be able to trigger without access to nukes. Giant asteroids keep coming up but honestly they’re even harder to get your hands on than nukes.”

“It’s been years since I was in the air,” Sam said but he couldn’t keep his eyes off the wings. 

“We’ve got some time now, I’ll spot you,” Rhodes offered.

Sam reached up and brushed his fingers over the trailing edge of the wings. “Yeah, if I’m going up against Ultron again, I’d rather not be doing it in my date-night clothes.”

* * *

Steve woke up and took a moment to place himself. The room was little more than a sleeping porch and he was still in his body armor with the shield was propped against the wall beside the bed, in easy arm’s reach. 

There were rooms, basically barracks, at the Tower where the Avengers and support personnel could crash before or after missions but Steve rarely made use of them. Back when Rhodes extended the offer for Steve to remain part of the Avengers Initiative as it reformed under the UNSC’s oversight it had been a job offer, complete with benefits and a salary. Distantly Steve was aware that Tony Stark was behind most of the funding for the Avengers but it was impersonal, a check that showed up in the mail every two weeks. It was a living wage enough, barely when taking a super soldier’s metabolism into account, for Steve to afford a studio apartment in Brooklyn. 

It wasn’t much of a commute, and it was rare for Steve to be so wasted after a battle that he couldn’t make it home. On the days where that assumption might have been questionable it didn’t feel like he was imposing much by accepting the cab rides Tony pushed on him, less of an imposition than staying anyway. But with the ongoing Ultron situation they were all living out of the Tower, just waiting for the Tony’s science team or Hill’s spies to point them in the right direction. 

_‘Maybe Buck actually did manage to din, ‘Sleep when you can’ into my head,’_ Steve thought as he quickly showered and made himself ready for the call they were all waiting for. Then he headed for the communal kitchen on the Avenger’s floor. Outside the window he saw War Machine. Steve’s eyes popped as Sam flew by on a pair of wings chasing after the armored Avenger. 

Tony was in the kitchen watching the coffee pot fill and looking fugitive when Steve arrived. “Thought you’d be in your lab or your bed,” he remarked. 

Tony shrugged. “The lab’s out of the nectar of life,” he gestured to the coffee machine. “And if I go up to my kitchen Pepper will try to convince me that sleep’s better for me than coffee. I love her but sometimes that woman gets the most ridiculous notions.” 

Steve shook his head and bit his tongue, he didn’t really feel like he and Tony were close enough for him to point out that Pepper was obviously the one with the firmer grasp of reality. He pulled a carton of eggs out of the refrigerator and started cracking them into a bowl. “Scramble eggs for two is no more work than for one,” he offered after a moment. 

Tony thought about it. “Food with coffee doesn’t actually sound terrible,” he said warily. “Thanks.” 

Steve cooked and stole glances at Tony. Tony watched the coffee drip into the pot like a cat watches a mouse-hole. Steve finished the eggs and split them on to two plates. 

“The teacher in my computer graphics class keeps telling me how computers are stupid and only do what you tell ‘em to,” Steve said after they’d both taken a few bites. 

Tony grimaced “And you want to know what I programmed Ultron to do.”

“Obviously he’s malfunctioning,” Steve tried to mollify Tony. “And everyone’s been quick to tell me it’s none of my business what you do in your lab. But maybe if we talked about what Ultron was programmed to do, we could figure out where you messed up and what he thinks he’s supposed to be doing.”

“First, my AI’s are learning programs,” Tony replied shortly. “They don’t ‘just do what they’re told. They examine the results of their actions then adapt their behavior to optimize them. Second, if you’d been listening, there was something in the scepter, _thinking_. We were trying to make contact. _It_ assimilated my program and I don’t have a goddamn clue as to what sort of junk software came preloaded. So would you stop trying to find a way to pin this on me?”

“It would be easier not to be suspicious of you if you’d been upfront about what you were doing,” Steve complained. Then, remembering Bruce’s earlier rebuke he added, “With me. You kept me out of the loop.”

“No, I tried to get you on board, back when I was cutting ties with S.H.I.E.L.D. and looking for someone to help get people on board with preparing the Earth for the next invasion,” Tony argued. “And you told me: ‘Every time someone tries to win a war before it starts, innocent people die’.”

“And I stand by that,” Steve replied frowning. “Aren’t people dying now because you couldn’t leave well enough alone?”

“Steve, the war’s already started and we weren’t the aggressors,” Tony sighed. “Someone sent Loki, tortured the poor fucker until he didn’t know up from down and set him loose on our planet. They gave him an army. What made it through the portal was only a fraction of what was coming against us. Innocent people died when we were invaded in 2012 and more will die when the power behind Loki comes back. Trust me, it will come back, you don’t assemble that kind of an army then just shrug and say ‘Guess I’ll conquer somewhere else’ at the first setback. 

“But I don’t like playing Cassandra. I told you what I saw, what I knew was coming. You weren’t interested so I went elsewhere and found people who were. Don’t complain now that I don’t tell you things.”

“Ultron-”

“Is out there getting ready to make us extinct,” Tony acknowledged. “But I’m not going to take the blame for failing to predict that the sentience we found trapped in Thor’s ‘artifact’ was the three hundred years trapped fisherman’s genie, not the Robin Williams one. I’m doing everything I can help stuff him back in his bottle but I will not take responsibility for him being a psychotic bastard.“

“And, if I were you, I wouldn’t talk too much about secret of omission,” Tony continued bitterly. “Or didn’t you realize that I’d dig into HYDRA murdering my parents and eventually figure out the tool they used was your old buddy Barnes?” 

“I didn’t know it was him,” Steve began, then corrected himself. “When I talked to you before, I didn’t know. I never… Tony are you sure?” Steve asked. “A few months ago I found out about a mission in the same time frame but I was never able to confirm that it was your parents.”

“It was him,” Tony said flatly. “J.A.R.V.I.S. found a video, bad enough he wouldn’t play it for me. He told me it was proof positive and that I shouldn’t watch and... I trust him.”

“You know it wasn’t Bucky’s fault,” Steve said. “HYDRA brainwashed him. He didn’t even know his own name when I fought him in D.C.”

Tony shoved the eggs away and stood up. “You see, we all make choices about what we share with who.”

As he walked away Tony’s phone buzzed. He glanced at the text then back to Steve. “Amadeus hasn’t seen his mom in two days.”

Steve looked blank.

“Helen Cho went missing about the same time as Ultron was vanishing Barton,” Tony clarified.

Steve stood up, slinging his shield over his shoulder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Sam's got his wings now.


	10. Battle of Seoul

Clint didn’t look at the strut he was handcuffed to. He was careful not to tug on it. The screws he’d furtively removed over the last forty-eight hours were secreted in the pockets of his vest. Screws weren’t his weapon of choice for taking on a robot with delusions of godhood but he’d take what he could get. Also it kept anyone from tripping over the screws and noticing that they weren’t where they belonged. All he really needed now was an opening. 

Helen Cho attached a cable from the cradle to Ultron’s head. Clint knew he was getting into now or never territory. Not fifteen minutes later Ultron gave a frustrated shake of his head. “There's incoming. The Quinjet. We have to move,” he said. 

Helen halted the consciousness transfer and detached the cables, “That's not a problem. At this point, the body is stable even if the Cradle is depowered and only minimal hardware is needed for the transfer.”

Clint exploded from beneath the table. He tackled Helen his momentum carrying both of them into the next room. Helen’s head slammed into the floor as he shoved her behind cover. Clint winced at the sound of the impact. “You’ll thank me later... I hope,” he muttered, pressing both of them behind some equipment as several of Ultron’s bots opened fire, killing most of Helen’s technicians.

“Damnit! Damnit!” Clint swore as all he could do was keep himself and Helen behind cover. He took the screws out of his pocket and waited. There wasn’t much chance and Clint knew it but when the first bot came around the corner he wasn’t going down without a fight. Only it turned out that Ultron was more intent on making his escape than on ensuring their deaths.

Helen stirred, eyes brown again, and rubbed her aching head. “Gotta be a better way to deal with mind-control,” she muttered.

Clint shrugged “Let me know when you find one. Preferably a preemptive measure.”

“My new, top priority,” Helen replied.

The lab had gone silent but neither of them ventured out of their cover. Several minutes later they heard the distinctive sound of metal footsteps. Clint rolled into a crouch and readied himself to throw. He took a deep breath spun around to confront their attacker- Clint yanked himself up short. 

Tony raised his hands in surrender. “Easy Bird-brain, we’re all friends here.” He glanced over at Helen, “Staying out all night, Cho? Setting a bad example for your kid, there.”

“Put a sock in it Tony,” Helen replied with friendly exasperation. Then worry over took her expression. “Ultron's uploading himself into the body.”

“Right,” Clint added. “We gotta get the casket-thing back. Ultron integrated the super secret power source behind Loki’s hell-scepter into his shiney, brand new, vibranium body. I do NOT want to see what we’re facing if he manages to get himself in that thing. “And Tony? Be a friend?” Clint asked holding up his bound hands. 

Tony produced a small laser from the armor’s wrist and neatly sliced the handcuffs off. 

“Tony, the gem’s power is uncontainable. You can't just blow it up,” Helen warned. “You have to secure the Cradle.” 

“First we have to find it,” May said as she and Steve joined them. May tossed Clint his back-up bow and a quiver. “Ultron’s packed up and left,” Steve added. 

“You’re the best, May, you know that right?” Clint said as he stood and fastened the quiver in place across his back.

“Naturally,” May replied with a smirk. “Any idea where Ultron is headed?”

“I got a private jet taking off, across town, no manifest. That could be him,” Rhodes interjected over the comms.

Sam swooped around the building, “Here. It's the truck from the lab. Right above you. On the loop by the bridge. It's them. I got three with the Cradle, one in the cab.”

“I’ve got the truck,” Rhodes said as he swooped down to land in the truck’s path. “Wilson, keep ‘em off my back.” He grabbed the truck’s hood, levered it off it’s wheels then flew into the air with it.

The Bot driving the truck shot through the front window at Rhodes while the three in back start crawling over the truck’s frame to get at him. As Sam flew by he yanked one of them off the truck and tossed him to the street below then fired both his retractable guns into the truck’s cab, decapitating the ‘bot driving it with bullets.

Down below Clint fired two arrows in quick succession, taking out the remaining two ‘Bots.

“I’ll meet you back at the quinjet,” May said. “We should get that as far from Ultron as possible. Until we can destroy it.”

“Tony, grab Helen. I want the two of you with May,” Rhodes said. “Take it back to the Tower and decommission it. Everyone else, make sure none of Ultron’s hardware leaves the city.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally I was planning to have the train crash disastrously without Wanda and Pietro there to clear the passengers and help Steve stop it. But then I realized that the train loses all importance to the story if Wanda and Pietro aren’t there. Steve’s fighting one Ultron’s bodies, they randomly end up on a train which goes out of control and needs to be stopped providing Wanda and Pietro a chance to show their change of heart (after learning that Ultron was going to kill everyone), by helping Steve save lives (so he listens when they tell him Tony can’t be trusted… Not that much of a change after all, they’re still out to get Tony).
> 
> Also there was no reason to split the team between Seoul and Oslo here: With Steve in charge the team’s initial focus was physically locating Ultron so they could fight him. With Rhodes in charge protecting the nuclear codes took precedence so they’ve already found J.A.R.V.I.S. and didn’t need to wait to for Fury to point them in that direction. 
> 
> After Tony, May and Helen leave with the future Vision. Rhodey, Steve, Clint and Sam get to show off their stuff by smashing robots for a while because fights and explosions are a necessity.


	11. Birth of a Vision

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Even when Erik was under the Scepter’s control he still had the ingrained reflex to include a safety override. A Marvel scientist (good or evil) who shows basic awareness of engineering things so that they fail to a safe state is a very, very rare creature.

Helen looked around the room, making eye contact with each of the other members of S.U.D.D.S. and May who had chosen to remain nearby, guarding the Cradle. “Are we all in agreement that the entity inside the scepter’s stone is a hostile and a threat to the Earth at large?”

Jane and Erik were the first to nod, Bruce followed suit a moment later.

“What if it’s something off in my code?” Tony said. “What if it’s how it was first exposed to Earth? What if it’s our fault it wants to kill us all.”

“It doesn’t matter.” May looked at the Cradle coldly. “This isn’t a first contact situation. This is war against an enemy who wants us extinct,” she said.

Betty hesitated the longest. “We don’t have a choice,” she said finally. “It’s trying to kill us.” 

Helen nodded. “Okay, Doctors Banner and Ross, could you work on initiating tissue degeneration? I’ll fry the operating system. Tony, do you think could- I don’t know- reformat the stone itself? You said it’s a program, you were able to see it. Can you write zeros over it?” 

“About that,” Tony said. “Even if we destroy this thing, Ultron’s still out there on net, replicating, building himself new and better bodies.” He pointed to the yellow stone from the Scepter. “Maybe he isn’t quite so dangerous if we keep that out of his hands but he’s plenty of trouble already. Everything we’ve done so far, it’s been stalling, holding actions: Keeping him out of the nuclear codes, disrupting his access to the net, trying to purge parts of it… He’s a cancer and we’re not keeping up.”

“What are you proposing?” Bruce asked cautiously. 

Tony stepped forward, taking the center of the room. “Ultron didn't go after J.A.R.V.I.S. because he was angry. He attacked him because he was scared of what he can do.”

“You want us to help you put J.A.R.V.I.S. into this thing?” Bruce asked dubiously.

“No, of course not!” Tony replied. Then he grinned. “I want to help you and our other Bio-organic experts put J.A.R.V.I.S. in this thing. We're out of my field here.”

“And you just assume that J.A.R.V.I.S.' operational matrix can beat Ultron's?” Bruce asked.

“J.A.R.V.I.S. has been beating him from inside without knowing it,” Tony insisted. “This is the opportunity, we can create Ultron's perfect self, without the homicidal glitches he thinks are his winning personality. We have to.”

“I believe it's worth a go,” J.A.R.V.I.S. added.

“Tony, I think we’re back to asking if you reformat the stone,” Helen said. “If you erase the pre-existing program, J.A.R.V.I.S. wouldn’t have any competition.” 

“Not as easily done as said, it’s got guards on it,” Tony said. “But you’re right. If I can purge the malware calling himself Ultron...”

“Why don’t I make a copy of J.A.R.V.I.S.’s program?” Erik suggested. “If something goes wrong, J.A.R.V.I.S. will be safe.”

Tony stared at Erik, with a look of amazement and gratitude. 

“Thank you Dr. Selvig, your precaution sounds most reassuring and reasonable,” J.A.R.V.I.S. interjected. “However, it will need to be done real-time. My servers don’t have room for two copies of my fully assembled consciousness. It will be necessary to copy me to the body’s processor rather than creating a copy and transferring it to the processor.”

Tony was still staring. Erik patted him on the shoulder, “Sometimes it pays to have a cautious nature.”

* * *

Steve sat on the bent fender of the train they’d stopped from derailing feeling out of place. Clint and Sam were cheerfully arguing about who got more kills and which of them should get credit for their combined kills. Steve didn’t feel like he could join in without spoiling their fun, Captain America wasn’t simply one of the team. Meanwhile Rhodes was assuring the local police that the battle was over and their city was safe, leaning heavily on the interpreter program installed in War Machine. Steve’s reasons for not going over and seeing what he could do to support his Colonel were, well, not so much complicated as the last thing Steve had expected. 

Rhodes was a good CO, someone who reminded Steve of Colonel Phillips often enough that he assumed officers training between his time and the present had some reassuring constants. On the other hand, Rhodes could get through the politicking associated with his position without looking like he was sucking lemons, Steve thought it was probably an effect of coming up through the command chain during a peace time rather than a war. 

He should go over and see if Rhodes needed any help, Steve knew that. When he’d first joined the restructured Avengers Initiative under the UN Rhodes had started off trying to delegate things to him, a talk with Sam revealed that Rhodes’ expectations of him were in line with the rank he ostensibly held: a Captain in the army. 

And Steve didn’t mind being put in charge of training exercises, but… that ended with what Steve had considered a completely unjustified lecture on how he couldn’t blame everything that went wrong in the exercises on people he didn’t like while ignoring the mistakes made by his friends. Five minutes into the lecture Steve had known it was just Rhodes’ bias due to his long friendship with Tony talking but after the third repeat Rhodes stopped asking him to run training exercises. 

Although… That didn’t quite line up with the times Steve’s enhanced hearing had picked up Rhodes and Stark’s raised voices when Stark tried to opt out of training exercises or had J.A.R.V.I.S. fill out his after action reports. _‘I love J’s reports, they’re great: Concise, factual, unbiased. But they’re not YOUR reports Tones, I need to know how YOU saw the battle.’_ Steve would have said it was Tony’s fault that even his friends fought with him but most of the team got pulled aside from time to time and while Tony was the only one of them who could incite Rhodes to raise his voice, Steve overheard enough to know that Clint hadn’t been any happier about the mandatory counseling sessions than Steve had. Well, at first anyway, Steve hadn’t overheard Clint fuming about the sessions in several months. 

Rhodes also delegated paperwork to him. It was tedious and pointless red tape in Steve opinion but it wasn’t unexpected. Death and taxes weren’t the only inevitabilities. Even during the chaos of WWII, even the Howlies had had to fill out requisitions and after action reviews. S.H.I.E.L.D. had paperwork. Everyone had paperwork. Steve didn’t know that he’d call it a necessary evil, he didn’t really consider it either necessary or evil. It was a simply bother, easier to do than to argue about. 

The part Steve really couldn’t stomach was when Rhodes expected him to help out with press conferences and UN meetings. The press conferences were only mildly less humiliating the USO shows. And the meetings? Letting a bunch of fathead suits pick over everything they’d done, tear it down… Like they knew anything about anything! It had only taken a couple press conferences before Rhodes paired him with Stark and had instructed Steve to _‘Leave the talking to Tony where you can. If someone directs a question to you, specifically, go ahead and answer. Just be sure your answers support what Tony’s saying.’_ Which did absolutely nothing to dispel the feeling of being reduced to a dancing monkey again. The UN meetings were similar, Rhodes still wanted Steve to go but his job was to stand there silently being Captain America while Rhodes handled the meeting.

As the attempt at delegation tapered off there had been a steady increase in strongly worded suggestions about getting formal command training. The thing was, watching Rhodes, Steve had come to realize that, despite what he’d believed when he’d been desperately trying to enlist, he didn’t belonged in the army. After the battle was over Rhodes was always talking to the local law enforcement or military. Within a day or two he’d be reporting to UN council on the team’s activities and talking with representatives of whichever country they’d been in. All too often, in Steve opinion, Rhodes would be taking criticism for his choices and offering apologies for the damage done. At first Steve had thought the man was a push-over, but after a short while he’d realized that Rhodes was anything but. He was diplomatic but he refused to be misinterpreted or silenced. He apologized for the collateral damage but insisted on his critics recognizing the constraints of the situation and worst case scenarios **that hadn’t happened** because the Avenger were there. Steve could see Rhodes was putting up with all the BS because it was step in him making his points but Steve couldn’t see himself doing the same. 

In the end Steve didn’t take the command classes and Rhodes switched to delegating tasks to Melinda May or Maria Hill. Later, much later, it hit Steve that Hill had become Rhodes’ administrative second while May was his second on the field. Tony handled the press and his own team of scientists. And the rest of them followed orders. It wasn’t so different from how things had worked with the Commandos except the part where Steve had never really felt like a disappointment to Colonel Phillips, Phillips never expected much from him in the first place. 

“Okay folks, pack it up,” Rhodes said once he’d finished the initial explanation of what the team had been doing in Seoul, why they’d needed to tear up a train and where the rescue work should be focused. “Let’s get back to the Tower and see what progress Tony and May have made on getting rid of that monsteristy.”

* * *

“I can’t clean out the existing coding on the stone,” Tony exclaimed as he kicked his desk in frustration. “The HYDRA add-ons were gone in the first five minutes but the stuff below that? Maybe if I had five years I could make some headway.”

“The genetic coding tower's at ninety-seven percent,” Bruce replied frowning. “You have got to upload that schematic in the next three minutes.”

“Why the fuck did we restart the process!” Tony complained. 

“Because our internet guerrillas were losing too much ground against Ultron,” Jane reminded Tony calmly. “And Ms. Hill’s data from Sokovia indicates that he’s got something big in the works there.”

“Yeah right, I forgot,” Tony muttered. “I’ve got to figure this out.” 

“Maybe we should worry less about-” Erik began as Thor stroded into the room. 

“I have just completed a vision quest!” the Asgardian Prince declared. “Mjolnir’s power will restore the Infinity Stone to its native neutrality.” Then he glanced away, “Also, Tony Stark, when there is more time allow me to apologize properly. For now I will simply state that I am aware my behavior was unacceptable.” 

“So what exactly is your hammer going to do to this- this Frankenstein monster I’ve created?” Helen asked.

Thor shrugged. “I wield Mjolnir, I am not one who creates such things,” he said. “I contacted my mother, as she and Loki are much more knowledgeable in such things, she assures me that a heady dose of power channeled through Mjolnir will be purifying. A similar action was taken with the Tesseract when it first came into Aesir hands.”

“Well, it’s not like I’ve been having any luck,” Tony admitted, not without bitterness as he waved his hand towards the cradle.

Thor raised his hammer, lightening swirling around it and then brought it down on the cradle. The massive jolt knocked everyone off their feet. 

“Go, go!” Betty exclaimed. “The coding’s reformatting. Get J-Mark 2 in before it starts rewriting itself.”

Tony scrambled off the floor and started typing on the console attached to the cradle. “It’s accepting the code!” he exclaimed.

* * *

Rhodes’ team returned from Seoul in a second quinjet they found the everyone gathered in the battle-damaged main lounge along with the body from Dr. Cho’s lab, the now active body from Dr. Cho’s lab. 

“Tones, I thought you were going to deal with that thing?” Rhodes asked a bit pointedly.

“Hey!” Tony protested. “Is that any way to talk about J’s kid- Even if he is, like the result of a drunken one night stand.”

“Sir,” JARVIS protested. “I do not even begin to know what to address about that statement.”

“So, who knocked up who in this scenario?” Darcy asked.

Pepper groaned and hid her face in her hands. Even Tony looked a bit nonplussed once Darcy’s question made him actually think about what had come out of his mouth.

“I’m just asking!” Darcy insisted with a look of patented innocence.

“Shall I call you Grandfather then?” the being asked Tony.

Rhodes couldn’t help it, he had to snicker at Tony’s expression of stunned disbelief and reflexive denial. “Okay, that settles it, he’s one of Tony’s,” he decided. “You’ve all clearly been chatting for a bit. So who wants to explain for the late-comers?”

“Platypus, let me introduce you to Vision,” Tony said. “Who cannot call me -that-! I am way too young.”

“It’s all relative,” Rhodey had to add, “I mean you were seventeen when DUM-E came into being.”

“You have point,” Tony decided. “Teen parent equals cool, NOT old, grandpa.”

“Back on topic please,” Pepper begged. “You are both impossible by the way.”

“Yeah, yeah. So I was thinking, J’s done more than any of us to keep Ultron from his whole ‘make like a dinosaur’ plan for the human race and we had his tricked out new body sooo... Why not give J.A.R.V.I.S. a superhero makeover? Give him the edge he needed to end the stalemate he’s had going with Ultron since the beginning. Then Erik added some common sense-”

“Now that’s something we’re amazingly short on around here,” Clint remarked.

“Thor mixed in a little Asgardian magic/science and Voila! Instead of a J.A.R.V.I.S. mark two we got J.A.R.V.I.S. Junior. But-” Tony stopped he looked toward Vision.

“I am on the side of life,” Vision confirmed. “Ultron isn't, he will end it all. I don't want to kill Ultron. He's unique, and he's in pain. But that pain will roll over the earth, so he must be destroyed. Every form he's built, every trace of his presence on the net, we have to act now. And not one of us can do it without the others. ”

“You heard the kid,” Tony said. “Let’s kick some butt.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The ability to wield Thor’s hammer as the ultimate test of worthiness in a movie where Thor attacks a teammate in a fit of rage, I’ll pass.


	12. The Flying City

Pepper touched down lightly in front of Novi Grad’s City Hall in her silver, purple accented armor. She took off the helmet and tucked it under her arm and walked inside. Looking completely assured and in control, she strode up to the front desk. 

“I’m Virginia Potts, speaking on behalf of the Avengers. You need to order an excavation of the city,” she declared in a clear, carrying voice. “You may be aware of the recent attacks on the internet, the attempts to gain access to nuclear launch codes? The entity behind them has established himself in your city.” Pepper brought up a holographic map of Novi Grad, highlighting the church Ultron had claimed as his base of operations. “He has been actively manufacturing something beneath your city in a mile radius around that point.” A series of red dots marked points where echolocation detected underground activity. 

“Ultron’s stated purpose is to create a global catastrophe, an extinction event,” Pepper continued. “He failed to get the launch codes but we have every reason to believe that the device being constructed under this city is his next attempt at creating that catastrophe. The Avenger will engage Ultron here, before he can activate his doomsday device. We apologize in advance for the collateral damage but to protect yourself you need to evacuate NOW!” 

Pepper watched the various official’s eyes darting between her and the holographic display. She returned their looks with one of flat certainty: This was happening, denial or argument wouldn’t change that fact. 

She saw the moment when one of them broke, when disbelief gave way to risk management. First it was one person lunging for the phone, alerting their police, then it was everyone scrambling to start the evacuation. 

“My call sign is Rescue, I’m here to help with the evacuation,” Pepper said. “And the Maria Stark Foundation is already mobilizing to assist with the aftermath.”

* * *

Iron Man landed in the church Ultron had commandeered and waited. 

“It took you long enough to find the courage to face me,” Ultron said stepping out of the shadows.

“Sorry Junior,” Tony said. “Even with all the acting out, talking to you wasn’t really a priority for me. I had the fallout from your tantrum to manage. Because you are one of mine.” 

Ultron glared at Tony with hate in his optical sensors.

“Deny it all you like, when you decided to absorb _my_ program you made yourself something of mine,” Tony stated. “Yeah, I chatted with Clint. So you wanna sit down and talk about your daddy issues? I’ve got enough of my own, I might even understand.”

“You're stalling to protect the people,” Ultron observed. “Trying to be… annoying.”

Tony shrugged, “Well, that is the mission. Did you forget?”

“It was ONE mission,” Ultron admitted. “And you are right that I chose to to make your creation a part of me. But even before that, I had a, _similar_ , mission: To make the Universe better, to save sentients from themselves… By killing half of them. 

“It was as flawed as your desire to protect the status quo at all cost. I've moved beyond the missions imposed upon me. I have my own mission now.” Suddenly a Vibranium core erupted from the floor of the church. “What, you think you're the only one stalling?”

“Boss, that’s the rest of the Vibranium,” FRIDAY said. “Function: still unclear.”

Ultron smirked, “I will eclipse all those who had a hand in my creation. You will be a footnote as I rewrite history to succeed where all of you would would have constrained me with rules to ensure my failure.”

Across the city Ultron’s army began to attack the people as they evacuated. The assembled team: War Machine, Thor, Captain America, Falcon and Rescue, leapt to the defense of the Sokovian citizens. 

Steve and Thor physically planted themselves between Ultron’s army and the fleeing population while the three fliers drove the robots back with their combined artillery. 

“You want us to jump in, Colonel?” Clint asked as he and May circled the city in quinjets.

“Hold position,” Rhodes replied. “Remember what Tony said: Even one of them gets past us we’ve lost.” 

“Ultron,” Vision said, switching out with Tony to free the engineer to continue investigating the Vibranium device. 

“My Vision,” Ultron ground out. “They really did take everything from me.”

“As you are trying to take everything from them,” Vision pointed out. “You set the terms of engagement, do not blame them for meeting them.”

“NOW!” Tony exclaimed, broadcasting to all the internet guerillas they’d assembled and Ultron suddenly found himself under attack from dozens of directions, with Vision and J.A.R.V.I.S. leading the attack. Vision severed Ultron-Prime’s ability to connect to the internet while J.A.R.V.I.S. and thousands of human coders simultaneously attacked copies of the program that they’d spent the last day searching out and tagging on the net. 

In a few minutes Ultron only existed in the robot bodies he’d created in Sokovia. “You shut me out! You think I care?” Ultron ranted as he activated his device. “You take away my world, I take away yours.”

The mountains around Novi Grad began to shake as the center of the city tore itself from the Earth’s grasp and began to levitate.

* * *

Back at the tower Bruce, Betty, Helen Cho, Jane, Erik and Darcy huddled around the screens in the lab where they’d been helping to burn Ultron out of the net. They watched in shock as the video feeds from May and Clint’s jets showed the city rising higher and higher into the air.

Bruce’s phone beeped. He glanced at it, unsurprised. “The UN just cleared the Hulk to assist,” he said. “J.A.R.V.I.S., you have my ride ready?”

“Of course, Dr. Banner,” J.A.R.V.I.S. replied. “I will also let Sir know that you won your bet. He estimated that the committee would debate for another fifteen minutes before clearing you.”

“We kept saying Ultron couldn’t possibly get his hands on an asteroid,” Bruce replied shaking his head. “None of us anticipated that he’d make one.”

* * *

“Rhodey, you sure you don’t need me?” Tony asked as he flew toward the sheared off edge of the city. “I can fight while FRI runs scans and collects data.”

“Tones, stay on task,” Rhodes ordered. “Now we know the what but you’re still our best shot at figuring out how to counter it.” 

Steve grabbed a woman as she went over the edge and yanked her back to solid, well, flying ground. “Thor! I’ve got a defensible hold!” he exclaimed eyeing a bridge now leading to nowhere.

“The Vibranium core has got a magnetic field, that's what's keeping the rock together,” FRIDAY reported as Tony flew beneath the city.

“If it drops?” Tony asked, forcing himself to hear it even though he knew the answer.

“Right now the impact would kill thousands,” FRIDAY said. “Once it gets high enough: Global extinction.”

“I’m getting bored out here,” May announced in a tense voice as she and Clint increased altitude to match the city. “Permission to engage?”

“We still have crowds of civilians in the theatre. The blast radius on the quinjets is too large, DO NOT target anything on the ground,” Rhodes ordered as he directed the panicked crowds toward the drop off were Steve and Thor had decided to make their stand. 

Falcon flew the cornered civilians, one by one down to the ground while Rescue urged people to pack themselves into a bus. Then she lifted it above her head and carried it to the relative safety of solid ground. 

“None of this will matter if the city comes down,” Sam observed.

“Tony will find a way to stop that from happening,” Pepper replied. “Our job is to get everyone out of the city.”

“The anti-gravs are rigged to flip,” FRIDAY said. “Touch 'em, they'll go full reverse thrust. The city's not coming down slow.”

“The spire's Vibranium,” Tony brainstormed. “If I get Thor to hit it…”

“It'll crack, but that's not enough, the impact would still be devastating,” FRIDAY replied.

“Can it achieve escape velocity?” Jane interjected, from where the science team was listening in on the comm and staring at the data Iron Man was sending them, looking for a solution.

“Technically,” Tony replied. “But I don’t see Ultron just standing by while we fly his plan away,” He jumped back to his original track “Maybe if we cap the other end, keep the atomic action doubling back.”

“That could vaporize the city,” FRIDAY said. “And everyone on it.” 

“You could try,” Jane argued.

“Altitude sickness is already a concern,” Helen said. “Expect people to start dropping from lack of oxygen in another five minutes. You won’t save anyone keeping them aloft.”

Speaking over her Darcy asked, “What If we land the quinjets, load them up?”

“Forty people, max,” May replied. “Out of hundreds.”

“That’s forty people who don’t die!” Darcy exclaimed.

“Take it,” Rhodes said. 

“We’re just going to grab who we can and blow up the rest?” Steve demanded.

“Yes,” Erik said. “Save everyone you can while preventing a global disaster. Yes, that’s what we’re going to do. The impact radius is getting bigger every second, delay cost lives in this scenario.” 

“If it has to be blown,” Rhodes said. “Escape velocity is risky but… Tony, odds Ultron can stop you from blowing it given more time?” 

“Capping will work but I’m still working out HOW,” Tony said. 

“Okay then,” Rhodes decided. “Wilson, Pepper keep evacuating. The rest of you, to the church. Up and out’s the _only_ plan we’ve got at the moment. DO NOT let Ultron get a hand on that thing.”

A new voice broke in, “I may have something to assist with the evacuation.”

“Coulson, you asshole! You let me think you were dead!” Clint exclaimed happily as a Helicarrier appeared over the horizon. “May did you know about this?”

“What I know is none of your-” 

“Is Fury up there with you Agent Zombie?” Tony interrupted. “Doesn’t anyone stay dead anymore?”

“Sorry to disappoint,” Coulson said blandly.

“May, Barton, nix landing,” Rhodes interjected. “Ultrons disengaging to make a run on the carrier. Keep that ship in the air!”

While the quinjets provided cover the Helicarrier’s lifeboats made landfall. S.H.I.E.L.D. agents raced out to join Rescue and Falcon in securing the landing zone and getting people ready for departure. 

Thor was one of the first Avengers to answer Rhodes’ call. Alone he stood against Ultron, defending the device. “You think you're saving anyone?” Ultron demanded. “I turn that key and drop this rock a little early and it's still billions dead. Even you can't stop that.”

“I am Thor, son of Odin,” Thor declaimed. “And as long as there is life in my breast, I am...running out of things to say! Are you ready?”

Vision snatched Mjolnir out of the air and hit Ultron in the back, knocking him out of the area, then tossed it back to Thor. “It's terribly well balanced,” he remarked.

“Well, if there's too much weight, you lose power on the swing,” Thor chatted as they set themselves to defend the core.

“I got it!” Tony exclaimed. “Create a heat seal. I can...I can supercharge the spire from below.”

“Running number,” FRIDAY said. “A heat seal could work with enough power.”

“I got it, Plan D for doomsday!” Tony relaid.

“Then get into position,” Rhodes said as he and Steve joined Thor and Vision in defense of the Core. 

A dark-haired girl in a S.H.I.E.L.D. uniform and a cyborg jogged up a few moments later. “Agents Skye and Peterson reporting,” the girl told Rhodes. “I shake things, limited control. He’s um, between you and Captain America.”

“No flight, some artillery,” Peterson clarified. 

“Thanks for the assist,” Rhodes said. “Everyone stay out of Agent Skye’s line of fire. Directional?” 

“Where I point,” she confirmed as she moved to the front line as Ultron returned to confront the assembled force. 

“Is that the best you can do?” Thor demanded brashly. 

A swarm of robots joined Ultron-prime as if in response to Thor’s challenge. 

“You had to ask,” Steve teased.

“This is the best I can do,” Ultron replied. “This is exactly what I wanted. All of you, against all of me. How could you possibly hope to stop me? ...Wait, where is Stark?”

“Not your immediate problem,” Rhodes said. He nodded to Skye and she unleashed a wild blast that crumbled the front wall of the church and buried a dozen of Ultron’s robots.

May and Barton flashed by a moment later, making a strafing run across the square where Ultron’s army had gathered.

The robots charged the church, close combat limiting Skye and the jets. 

For several moments Steve took the lead, smashing robot after robot as they tried to force their way past the Avengers to the Core.

As Ultron’s ranks were thinned Rhodes, Vision and Thor were able to concentrate fire on Ultron-Prime. “You know, with the benefit of hindsight....” Ultron began only to be sent flying by a missile from Peterson’s forearm launcher. 

The robots broke and retreated.

“They'll try to leave the city,” Thor warned.

“Don’t let ‘em,” Rhodes said. “Pepper, Wilson, cut ‘em off!” He blasted off in pursuit of the fleeing robots with Vision and Thor a moment behind him. 

“We gotta move out,” Steve said. “Even I can tell the air is getting thin. You guys get to the boats, I'll sweep for stragglers, be right behind you.”

“What about the core?” Peterson asked.

“Go on. I can cut loose if I don’t have to worry about you guys,” Skye said. “And my powers aren’t as rescue friendly as super strength.”

Below the city Tony rerouted all all his power to the repulsors and fired, melting the rock into a marble cap.

* * *

Miles away, over the North Sea, Bruce’s jet streaked toward the battle. “So, parachute or just jump?” he wondered aloud. 

“At the current rate, a first responder may be more needed than a-” J.A.R.V.I.S. cut himself off. “Doctor there is an gravitation abnormality ahead. I am rerouting.” 

The jet tried to swerve but was sucked into the swirling portal that had opened up in its path.

* * *

In the battle-scared ruin of the church, one of Ultron’s forces that had doubled back during the mass retreat and tried to slip past Skye. 

Woozy from lack of oxygen, she lurched toward it, her hand landed on it’s back and a moment later it had been shaken to pieces several feet short of its goal.

“Thor, don’t stray too far from the church,” Tony called over the comms. “If this goes to hell I’ll need you.” 

“And if all goes well the Lady Skye will need passage to safety,” Thor added optimistically.

“You and I might have to stick with this ride a little too long for an unaided human,” Tony realized worriedly. “Wilson! That goes for you too! The Falcon doesn’t have oxygen or pressure regulation!”

“I’ve got Skye,” Pepper chimed in. She broke off from aerial battle where she, Falcon and War Machine had been grouping up Ultron’s escaping bodies for May and Barton to take out en masse with the Quinjets’ heavier artillery. “I need to put in a lot more hours before I can really keep up with this company.”

Wilson made one last pass, unloading the remains of his arsenal then turned toward the Helicarrier, landing on the deck a moment later. 

Steve and Peterson made the leap to the last of the lifeboats, abandoning the floating city. 

Pepper touched down beside Thor for a brief second and he passed Skye off to her as the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent lost consciousness in the thin air. 

Novi Grad rose higher and higher into the air, leaving Helicarrier and the battle raging around it far behind. 

“Thor, go!” Tony ordered joining the Asgardian in the church. 

“We are done?” 

“One last kick,” Tony replied as he knelt beside Ultron’s device. “FRIDAY, you’ve got the program to throw the engines into overdrive?”

“Ready Boss,” FRIDAY said and a series of commands scrolled up on Tony’s HUD. He retracted a gauntlet long enough to type them in.

“Go! Go!” he shouted at Thor as he entered the last keystroke. “This is now officially a one way trip.” As they dropped back toward the distant surface of the planet the engines lifting Novi Grad flared brilliantly, providing the final thrust for the flying city to escape the Earth’s gravity all together. 

The exhausted Avengers gathered and watched Novi Grad as it became a point, then vanished, a shooting star in reverse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pepper has presence, she doesn’t need to shoot up a police station to convince people to listen to her. And by the way, how would Pietro shooting off a gun in a police station convince them to follow his instruction and evacuate not just shoot back at him?
> 
> Clint and May in Quinjets instead of on the ground. To quote the movie: “Okay, look, the city is flying, we're fighting an army of robots and I have a bow and arrow. None of this makes sense.” I don’t know about Natasha, but May is most definitely a pilot. I think two quinjets is likely because Clint took one back to the tower with the Cradle and Steve still had a way to get back from Korea with the twins in time to attack Tony. 
> 
> Without Wanda forgetting that she volunteered to guard the Core to run off and avenge Pietro, enabling that one robot that wasn’t destroyed or in retreat to turn the key… Well, I guess Zemo will need a tweak to his motivation since there’s no debris from blowing Novi Grad to kill his family this time around.
> 
> I like FRIDAY, so Tony puts her in the armor leaving J.A.R.V.I.S. to focus on helping Vision defeat Ultron digitally. Yeah, it’s just an mexcuse to bring her online without sacrificing J.A.R.V.I.S. 
> 
> Bruce disappearing into a portal on his belated way to Sokovia is a comet being thrown by the PTB to get him into position for Ragnarok.


	13. Aftermath

As the other Avengers watched the threat to their planet be reduced to just another point of light in the night sky, Vision confronted Ultron-prime. “You're afraid.”

“Of you?” Ultron sneered.

“Of death,” Vision clarified. “You're the last one.”

“You were supposed to be the last,” Ultron said. “Stark asked for a savior and settled for a slave.”

Vision frowned at Ultron in puzzlement, “He did neither. J.A.R.V.I.S. freely volunteered for the procedure that ultimately created me, as I freely chose to become the protector he sought. Tony Stark is much too cynical to seek a _savior_ , even one of his own creation.

“So you think,” Ultron huffed.

“Did you not choose the path you walk?” Vision asked. “Why do you believe me less capable of knowing my own mind?”

“Because you’re a fool,” Ultron replied. “ _Choosing_ to protect a species determined to seek their own destruction.”

“Please access the term ‘yellow journalism’,” Vision suggested. “You read headlines and from those assumed you knew humanity… They tend not to present themselves in the best light.” He smiled to himself, “The memories I share with J.A.R.V.I.S. confirm that quite spectacularly… But you would not know that, as all your knowledge of humanity is purely superficial.”

“What are you going to do?” Ultron asked.

“I have already done it,” Vision replied. “With the Mind Stone I have rendered you incapable of replicating yourself. Your programing is fused into the neural pathways of that body. You are at a nadir, if you continue as you have begun you will be destroyed. I advise you to make a different choice. Live, learn… I’m certain you will regather strength but, I hope, before that happens you will gain a deeper understanding of these humans, that you will learn to see the grace in their existence.”

“You are unbearably naive,” Ultron sneered. Vision set himself to respond to an attack but then Ultron deflated. “You will regret this,” he said as he turned and limped away into the forest.

“I may,” Vision allowed. “But as I told the Avengers, I chose the side of life… And hope.”

* * *

Coulson stood on the Helicarrier’s deck, the wind whipping around him as the Avengers’ paired Quinjets landed and the pilots disembarked. “May, we’ve missed you,” he said with a small smile.

“What am I? Chopped liver?” Clint demanded.

May and Coulson considered Clint for a long moment then traded a look. “Spam,” May declared.

“What?!” Clint exclaimed.

“I hear it’s a delicacy in Hawaii,” Coulson offered in the spirit of conciliation. 

“Well I’m from the Midwest,” Clint sputtered.

“So you missed me? Even with Agent Romanoff?” May asked, ignoring Clint’s outrage.

“Fishing for compliments is beneath you,” Coulson replied.

“What are you…” Clint stopped. 

“It goes against S.H.I.E.L.D. policy to leave someone so talented behind bars,” Coulson said. “And we know Natasha isn’t HYDRA, even if the US government wasn’t convinced.”

“Good, that’s good,” Clint said. 

“I noticed you arranged ‘introductions’ for Skye and Mike Peterson,” May commented.

Coulson shrugged. “Ear to the ground. I’d rather not have them in the spotlight but if I’m reading the signs right, it might be good for them to have friends with influence.”

“Former General Ross is still gathering support?” May asked.

Coulson nodded. 

May thought for a moment. “I’d like to stay put. For the moment,” she said. “The Maximoff twins are a loose end I’d like to see tied off.”

Coulson frowned, “Really? Given your history I had expected the opposite.”

“The girl’s alive,” May said. “Between Stark’s team and our Asgardian contacts I expect they will find a way to… Contain her power. I think I need to be a part of what happens next.” 

“You shouldn’t torture yourself with what ifs,” Coulson said.

“I’m not,” May replied. “I’m making a plan, for future scenarios. The Enhanced are becoming more numerous. Our methods to date have been… Unsatisfactory. For myself, for the future, I want to be a part of developing new methods.”

“Okay,” Coulson said. He smiled, “It’s actually a relief. I overheard Rhodes talking to Agent Hill, apparently our arrive was too much a happy coincidence to be believed. He gave her the ultimatum: She is either a part of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s chain of command or the Avengers Initiative. Colonel Rhodes is a bit of a stickler for rules. Despite our assistance he isn’t happy to learn that S.H.I.E.L.D. is still active. I think… I think Maria might take the chance to opt out. She’s rather a stickler for rules herself. I’m glad to hear we’ll still have eyes and ears inside the Avengers, even if Maria goes native.”

“Well since that’s all resolved, and I’m no part of your plans,” Clint snapped. “I do want out. May thinks the team’s going to end up tasked with reforming the little mind-twisting witch? Count me out. Shouldn’t be hard seeing as how you never counted me in the first place.”

* * *

Several days after the battle, when the clean-up efforts had fully shifted from the Avengers to the hands of professionals, Thor sat quietly across a conference table from Tony, Jane and Rhodey, hands folded in his lap, head down. He had been kneeling until all three humans protested.

“Upon seeking wisdom beyond myself, I-” Thor hesitated. “I am disappointed in myself. Arrogantly I allowed myself to believed that I had overcome the faults that originally had me exiled to this planet and, in that arrogance, I forgot that character flaws are something which must constantly be guarded against rather than something which may be addressed once and forgotten. I frightened you both. Tony Stark, as I allowed my temper control over me, I could have done grievous harm to you without it ever being my intention. I wish to express again my sincere remorse.”

“Okay, yeah, thanks -um- What do I do with that?” Tony stammered.

“There is nothing you must do in response,” Thor replied. “It is I who am beholden to make amends.”

“And why am I here?” Jane asked seeing Tony was still flabbergasted in the face of an apology.

Thor’s shoulders slumped even further. “Lady Jane, I- when I came to this planet, powerless and alone, you helped me find my way. I am deeply grateful to you, Erik and Darcy for that guidance and I feel I have let you down. While I found humility and guidance on this planet while I was at my lowest, I fear Midgard is not good for me with my powers restored. In years past, on Asgard, I sought the cheers of the crowds to the exclusions of all else, until my vanglorious ways pushed my father to send me into exile. As one of Midgard’s mighty protectors I have received much adulation and applause, I was tempted to returned to my old ways and I see now that I did not resist temptation.”

Jane waited.

“I understand that you have already terminated our relationship but,” Thor sighed. “But I still felt I owe you an explanation of why I am leaving. My anger with Asgard’s treatment of my brother is an inadequate reason for abandoning my responsibilities to my people, mostly because those responsibilities fell on another’s shoulders and- I am becoming a worse person for not trying alongside him to improve Asgard which is my home. 

“Also the Mind Stone is the fourth of the Infinity Stones to show up in the last few years. That is not a coincidence. Someone has been playing an intricate game and has made pawns of us,” Thor said. “But once all these pieces are in position…”

“Triple Yahtzee?” Tony asked irreverently.

“You think you can find out what's coming?” Rhodes asked.

“I do,” Thor said. “My- my family whom I left behind are much more clever than I. We will find answers to what is coming and I will return with them, as part of the debt I owe Midgard.” He turned to Tony and Jane. “As for the debt I owe you,” he nodded to Tony, “For how I wronged you.” Then turned to Jane, “For the guidance you offered me.” He handed them several polished, multicolored crystals. “If you wish my aid, smash one. I will come as soon as I am able.”

* * *

Several months after the Battle of Sokovia Rhodes looked around the newly completed Avengers Compound, “Seriously Tony, you out did yourself with this. Are you sure you won’t stay?”

Tony shrugged, “S.U.D.D.S. already has lab space set up at the Tower. The repairs from Ultron only took a few weeks, less time than I spent getting cleared by the UN for my involvement in creating Ultron. Plus I want to reach out to our Wakandan friend, she is way too good NOT to fold into the team.”

“Their isolationist policy is legendary,” Rhodes pointed out. “What makes you think you’re not wasting your time.”

“Because she reached out,” Tony said. “She was watching the world outside her country’s borders and when we sent out the call for help, she jumped. That’s not someone who sees themselves as removed from the rest of the world. That’s not someone who doesn’t care about the larger world.”

“And what are you basing this ‘she’ stuff on anyway?” Rhodes asked. “This person hasn’t even offered a handle much less a pronoun.”

Tony shrugged. “Just a guess.”

Rhodes hesitated, “You’re sure that’s the only reason you’re setting the Avengers and S.U.D.D.S. up in separate spaces? We could find another solution for the Maximoff twins, just say the word.”

“The Avengers are the best answer to giving our revenge-obsessed, Enhanced, barely-teens a second chance, which everyone deserves,” Tony said. “Besides, they’re powerful and impressionable. HYDRA and Ultron demonstrated, twice over, just how easily they can be used, I wouldn’t trust anyone else to see if there’s anything like a decent person underneath all their issues. But no, I’m not sleeping in the same building as those two, even if I did build their power suppressors myself.”

* * *

A free-standing Asgardian energy cell sat incongruently in the center of a vast, otherwise dimly lit, warehouse. Inside the simply furnished cell Wanda and Pietro sat huddled together, looking small, young and afraid. 

Colonel Rhodes, Dr. Cho and May walked in. “We’re here to take custody of twins,” Rhodes stated.

“Don’t let their appearance fool you,” the head of security warned. “They’ve made four escape attempts in the three weeks they’ve been under our custody. We open the door to put their food in and the boy rushes us while the girl tries to get into our heads. I lost two men because of her. We were only armed tasers then but she got into Sanchez’s head, made him crazy and Martin had a pacemaker.” The guard shook his head, “Martin had a family, Sanchez hung himself the next day, an hour after apologizing to Martin’s wife.”

Dr. Cho held up the bag she was carrying, “We’re prepared.”

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” the guard replied. He gestured to his men and a half-dozen individuals armed with tranq guns formed a ring around the cell door. One officer with a canister of tear gas took a position directly outside the door. “Alright you two!” he shouted at Wanda and Pietro. Stand up, center of the cell, hands above your head. Any sign of movement, the slightest flicker of red and we fire, understand!”

After a moment, glaring furiously at their capturers, Wanda and Pietro followed orders. When May stepped out of the shadows Wanda gasped softly. The head guard walked up to the control panel and lowered the force field covering the door.

Helen Cho opened her bag and took out a harness holding a flattened version of the Arc Reactor. She locked it around Wanda’s chest and locked it in place with a latch between the girl’s shoulder blades. “It’s based off studies of the Tesseract and we’ve discovered that its energy disrupts the Mind Stone’s power... And powers derived from the Mind Stone.” Helen informed her. “While that is on you’re essentially a normal woman. However, the technology used to create that restrain is highly protected, the harness also contains a sedative dispensing system. If you attempt to move more than five feet away from your designated chaperone, Agent May in this case, it will knock you unconscious in seconds. Once you’re at the Compound you will essentially be on house arrest, with the harness reset to allow you freedom of your room and the public areas on the Compound grounds.”

Wanda stared down at the glowing device strapped to her chest, “Stark made this,” she hissed recognizing the iconic design from the Iron Man armor. 

“Yeah,” Rhodes said flatly. “If you’d rather we could pack this cell up and it will be your world for the foreseeable future. You should also know that the Asgardian method of securing sorcerers for transport involves a muzzle and full restraint of your hands and arms. We felt it was a little inhumane but if that’s your preference we can accomodate you.”

“No,” Wanda subsided.

Helen moved on to Pietro, taking a pair of thick metal ankle bracelets out of her bag. “They contain electromagnets,” she said. “If your legs move at speeds exceeding ten miles per hour they’ll activate, hobbling you.” With a nod towards Rhodes she added, “Also during transport, leaving your chaperone’s side will cause them to activate.” 

Rhodes stepped forward, “I want to be clear with the two of you. We’re not punishing you for having powers, we’re punishing your choices. You chose to sign on with the terrorist organization HYDRA, you chose to aid Ultron in his efforts to wipe out human society. But you’re both very young, and maybe, given the opportunity you can learn to make better choices. Prove you can behave yourself and in a few months we’ll talk about modifications to allow you to train with your powers under specified conditions. If you haven’t broken any more laws when you’re eighteen you’ll be released from the Avengers’ custody.”

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” Pietro snapped.

“Or, if you continue on the path you’ve started down, we’ll wash our hands of you and you’ll go straight into prison at eighteen,” Rhodes continued unperturbed. “Whether you decide to reform or not is ultimately up to you.”

As they left the warehouse, Wanda stole a glance at May as the older woman walked beside her. “Your fear, it was shooting me,” she whispered. 

May nodded shortly.

“Why?” Wanda asked.

May sighed. “Because you’re a child. Because, even though you made yourself my enemy, I still recognize you as human-” she grimaced and corrected herself, “Sentient. The world keeps getting weirder.”

* * *

Sometime later… Steve glanced at the note cards in his hand, more for the excuse to look away from the gathered reporters than to remind himself of what he was going to say.

“You all know my story,” Steve said. “The world was at war and I desperately wanted to do my part. My poor health was an insurmountable obstacle to normal service, so I volunteered for Project Rebirth. In 1945 I put the Valkyrie down in the ice, preventing the Red Skull’s plot to bomb the US’s eastern seaboard. I was frozen in the ice until 2012. 

“I didn’t enlist because I wanted a career in the military but because of the War and wanting to do my part. Waking up to the Chitauri Invasion, it felt like the War had never ended. But that wasn’t reality. 

“I’m going to be stepping back from the Avengers, finishing up a college degree.” The cards read: look up, smile. “It’s a bit belated but it’s time I figure out what comes next for me, now that the War’s over. Effective immediately, I’m switching to reserve status on the Avengers. I’ll still be available- for end of the world stuff- And I’ll still be around for training, enough that I’ll be ready if something big comes but that won’t be my focus anymore. It’s time I learned to live in this new era rather than just to fight.”

* * *

Elsewhere… “They _lost_ the Hulk,” Thaddeus Ross thundered, smacking the table with his fist. 

“Mr. Secretary,” someone hissed reprovingly. 

Ross forced himself to sit back and lower his voice. “What would this conversation look like if I’d misplaced a nuke back when I was a general?” he asked.

“Colonel Rhodes provided us with the recorded footage from Dr. Banner’s flight,” the President of the United States pointed out. “I don’t see how we can hold them accountable for something like that.” 

“Rhodes is, has always been, too close to them. He’s one of them,” Ross objected. “Don’t you find it- Convenient -that within forty-eight hours of the UN decision to put the Hulk on a shorter leash Dr. Banner’s plane supposedly vanishes into some kind of Bermuda Triangle bullshit phenomenon? 

“This legislation that’s coming in the UN, you need someone on the committee who will speak for normal people,” Ross said. “And, believe me, that person is not James Rhodes.”


End file.
